LIFE  ;iPI*«HE 
WAY  THROUGH 

REV.   F.  B.  MEYER 


.i^;^a,iW?(iftHni«M') 


rUnininiHii}iHU|, 


iWli.lHuUI    iKi    :  I !  Lh(i.! !,' 


Ill      Pil     ' 


^m 


'mm 


tihvaxy  of  Che  €heclo0ical  ^tminavy 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

The  Estate  of  the 
Rev,  John  3.  Wiedinp:er 
BV  4501  .M482  1913 
Meyer,  F.  B.  1847-1929 
Life  and  the  way  through 


LIFE  AND  THE  WAY  THROUGH 


Life  and  the  Wa^'''' 
Through 


^v; 


^'f  ^^  \^    •:> 


BY  THE 

REV.  F.   B.   MEYER,  B.A. 

AUTHOR  OF 

"The  Shepherd  Psalm,"  "Old  Testament  Heroes," 
"The  Creed  of  Creeds,"  etc.,   etc. 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

New  York  and  London 
1913 


FOREWORD 

So  considerable  a  portion  of  this  book  has 
been  planned  or  written  whilst  I  am  enjoying 
the  generous  hospitality  of  my  friends,  Lord 
and  Lady  Kinnaird,  at  their  beautiful  Scottish 
home,  that  it  is  natural  and  delightful  to  in- 
scribe it  to  them  with  warm  affection  and 
sincere  admiration  of  all  the  holy  activities 
which  are  ever  issuing  from  their  lives  to  make 
the  way  through  this  world  easier  for  multi- 
tudes of  pilgrims. 

F.  B.  MEYER. 


FOREWORD 

So  considerable  a  portion  of  this  book  has 
been  planned  or  written  whilst  I  am  enjoying 
the  generous  hospitality  of  my  friends,  Lord 
and  Lady  Kinnaird,  at  their  beautiful  Scottish 
home,  that  it  is  natural  and  delightful  to  in- 
scribe it  to  them  with  warm  affection  and 
sincere  admiration  of  all  the  holy  activities 
which  are  ever  issuing  from  their  lives  to  make 
the  way  through  this  world  easier  for  multi- 
tudes of  pilgrims. 

F.  B.  MEYER. 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Introduction          .       .         .         .  i 

1.  There  is  a  Way  Through  .         .  5 

2.  The  Guiding  Hand     ...  17 

3.  The  Jewelled  Gate — Faith        .  25 

4-  ..  »  ,,        Love         .       55 

5-  ..  >y  „       Hope         .      81 

6.  Some  Experiences  on  the  Way        90 

7.  Our  Spending-Money  .         .         .     123 

8.  The  Companions  of  the  Way     .     140 

9.  Resting-Places  .         .         .         .151 
10.  The  Growing  Splendour  of  Life  175 


At  noon  a  shower  had  fallen,  and  the  clime 
Breathed  sweetly,  and  upon  a  cloud  there  lay 
One  more  sublime  in  beauty  than  the  Day, 
Or  all  the  sons  of  Time; 

A  gold  harp  had  he,  and  was  singing  there 
Songs  that  I  yearn' d  to  hear ;    a  glory  shone 
Of  rosy  twilights  in  his  cheeks — a  zone 
Of  amaranth  on  his  hair. 

He  sang  of  joys  to  which  the  earthly  heart 
Hath  never  beat ;    he  sang  of  deathless  youth, 
And  of  the  throne  of  Love,  Beauty,  and  Truth 
Meeting  no  more  to  part; 

He  sang  lost  Hope,  faint  Faith,  and  vain  Desire 
Crown' d  there;  great  works,  that  on  the  earth  began 
Accomplished ;    towers  impregnable  to  man 
Scaled  with  the  speed  of  fire; 

Of  Power,  and  Life,  and  winged   Victory 
He  sang  ;  of  bridges  strown  'twixt  star  and  star — 
And  hosts  all  arm'd  in  light  for  bloodless  war 
Pass  and  repass  on  high; 

'  Lo  !    in  the  pauses  of  his  jubilant  voice 
He  leans  to  listen  :    answers  from  the  spheres, 
And  mighty  paeans  thundering  he  hears 
Down  the  empyreal  skies; 

'  Then  suddenly  he  ceased — and  seemed  to  rest 
His  goodly-fashioned  arm  upon  a  slope 
Of  that  fair  cloud,  and  with  soft  eyes  and  hope 
He  pointed  towards  the  West; 

'  And  shed  on  me  a  smile  of  beams,  that  told 
Of  a  bright  World  beyond  the  thunder-piles 
With  blessed  fields,  and  hills,  and  happy  isles. 
And  citadels  of  gold." 

F.  Tennyson. 


LIFE  AND  THE  WAY  THROUGH 

INTRODUCTION 

Which  is  the  more  important — to  know  the 
end  of  Hfe  or  the  way  through  ?  At  the  first 
glance  one  might  suppose  that  it  was  all- 
important  to  be  acquainted  with  the  end  or 
goal  of  life.  How  can  we  choose  our  path  over 
the  mountains,  as  we  forgather  at  the  dawn 
on  the  village  green,  unless  the  night  before 
we  have  settled  on  our  destination  ?  To  a 
young  man  standing  on  life's  threshold  it  is 
natural  enough  to  say  :  ''  What  are  you  going 
to  be  ?  What  is  your  objective  ?  What  are 
you  aiming  at  ?  Make  everything  converge 
towards  that  object.  Count  every  moment 
lost  that  does  not  help  you  towards  it."  Was 
not  such  a  thought  in  the  mind  of  the  Apostles 
when  they  said  to  the  Master  :  ''  Lord,  we 
know  not  whither  Thou  goest,  and  how  can 
we  know  the  way  ?  '' 

But  here  is  the  difficulty.  Many  of  us  have 
not  the  inkling  of  an  idea  as  to  the  end  to 
which  to  direct  our  steps.  Some  happy  souls, 
by  their  birth  or  by  some  special  impulse  com- 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

municated  to  them,  seem  to  have  the  respon- 
sibiHty  of  decision  taken  out  of  their  control. 
A  voice  called  to  them  in  early  childhood.  The 
idiosyncrasy  of  their  mental  bent  determined 
their  orbit.   Before  they  saw  their  first  sunrise, 
they  seem  to  have  been  commissioned  for  some 
high  quest.     The  ship,  in  some  cases,  sailed 
with  sealed  orders,  but  as  soon  as  the  coast- 
line faded  the  predestined  port  was  known. 
But  these  are  the  exceptions.    For  most  lives 
the  future  does  not  disclose  itself.   *'  We  know 
not  what  we  shall  be."    For  all  of  us  who  are 
in  such  a  plight  the  profound  teaching  of  Jesus 
is  of  priceless  value.    He  says  in  effect  that  it 
is  more  important  to  know  the  way  than  the 
end.   He  does  not  deny  that  there  is  a  distinct 
purpose  in  every  human  life.  He  does  not  deny 
that  each  of  us  was  meant  to  reach  a  bourne, 
to  do  a  work,  to  fulfil  some  item  in  the  vast 
scheme  of  Providence  ;   but  He  says  that  this 
is  not  the  most  important  matter.    So  long  as 
we  take  the  right  way  we  shall  reach  a  satis- 
fying and  useful  end.    We  shall  not  find  our 
life  to  have  failed.    Follow  the  way  !   Be  loyal 
to  truth  !   Be  faithful  to  opportunity !  Expend 
yourself  for  others,  and,  as  the  path  develops, 
it  will  climb,  and  the  mountain  glories  will  un- 
told, and  the  goal  will  become  always  clearer 
of  view. 


Introduction 

This  is  very  comforting,  because  even  in 
those  cases  where  Hfe  seems  to  have  been  pre- 
destined for  a  specific  purpose,  it  often  happens 
that  we  are  prevented  from  realising  it.  We 
are  hable  to  the  intrusion  of  very  starthng  and 
sometimes  very  unwelcome  surprises.  It  may 
be  that  through  paralysing  sickness,  or  through 
the  death  of  some  one  who  proposed  to  pro- 
vide the  shelter  and  help  that  our  life-course 
required,  or  through  an  unexpected  change  of 
fortune,  we  are  thrown  off  the  chosen  track  of 
our  life.  Immediately  we  are  bewildered,  sore 
vexed,  inclined  to  be  angry  with  the  Almighty, 
and  tempted  to  renounce  all  further  care  and 
effort.  Yet  how  often  such  an  experience  has 
proved  to  be  either  a  call  of  God  to  a  truer  con- 
ception of  our  ideal,  or  a  swifter,  shorter  way 
to  it  ?  When  the  waters  of  the  Nile  find  them- 
selves blocked  by  the  new  dam  which  modern 
engineers  have  placed  across  their  passage  to- 
wards the  sea,  is  it  not  conceivable  that  they 
greatly  resent  their  diversion  to  the  wastes  of 
sand  which  for  long  centuries  have  lain  bare 
and  desolate  ?  But  are  they  not  amply  repaid 
by  their  opportunity  ?  Who  shall  say  that 
they  have  failed  ?  And  when  at  last  they  are 
able  to  make  their  way  to  the  bosom  of  the 
deep,  to  lie  there  for  a  little  ere  drawn  up  again 
to  start  on  their  vast  cloud-journey,  it  must 

3 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

be  with  the  satisfaction  that  they  have  finished 
the  work  which  was  given  them  to  do. 

Thus  will  it  be  with  all  who  will  take  the 
right  way  through  life.  There  may  be  the 
ups  of  achievement  and  the  downs  of  disap- 
pointment ;  there  may  be  Transfiguration 
gleams  and  Gethsemane  shadows  ;  but  we 
shall  win  through,  and  shall  not  have  lived  in 
vain.  The  main  consideration,  therefore,  is  to 
centre  our  thoughts  on  the  way  through. 

We  desire  not  only  to  get  through  life,  but 
to  do  so  in  the  best  way  possible.  Not  scourged 
through  as  felons  ;  not  driven  through  as 
slaves  ;  not  dragged  through  at  the  tails  of 
wild  horses  ;  but  as  those  who  have  learned 
the  secret  of  noble  living — a  secret  which  is 
applicable  to  all  temperaments  and  conditions, 
a  talisman  of  victory  over  the  most  terrific 
odds,  a  clue  which  shall  thread  the  maze,  and 
conduct  the  soul  from  out  of  the  darkness  of 
life's  catacomb  to  stand  beneath  the  open 
heavens,  where  we  no  longer  behold  through 
a  glass  darkly,  but  face  to  face. 


THERE   IS   A  WAY   THROUGH 

How  often  is  the  question  asked  by  the 
motorist  or  pedestrian  in  a  new  country,  where 
the  road  becomes  worse,  or  the  path  more  in- 
distinct over  the  moor,  'Xan  I  get  through  ?  '' 
or,  ''  Is  there  a  way,  and  will  it  bring  me 
out  ?  "  We  may  well  ask  that  question  of  life. 
Is  there  any  purpose  in  it  all  ?  Are  we  going 
anywhere  ?  And,  if  so,  is  this  the  right  track 
that  we  have  taken  ? 

One  day  Schopenhauer  strayed  into  the 
Royal  Gardens  at  Berlin;  and  when  the 
official  inquired,  "  Who  are  you  ?  "  the  philo- 
sopher replied  :  ''  I  don't  know  ;  I  shall  be 
glad  if  you  can  tell  me."  The  official  reported 
him  for  a  lunatic.  But  he  was  far  from  that. 
The  only  difficulty  with  him  was  that  he  had 
deeply  pondered  on  the  mystery  of  human  life, 
and  was  bewildered  with  the  perplexity  of  the 
problem.  Similarly,  if  the  question  were  put 
to  vast  numbers  of  people,  "  Quo  vadis  ?  " 
(Whither  are  you  going?),  they  would  return 
the  same  reply  :  ''I  don't  know  ;  I  shall  be 
glad  if  you  can  tell  me."  Such  people  resemble 

5 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

a  bewildered  child,  standing  on  a  platform  in 
a  railway  centre  like  Finsbury  Park  or  Clap- 
ham  Junction.  They  know  not  how  they  came 
there,  or  whence  ;  they  have  no  idea  whither 
the  long  parallel  metals  lead  ;  they  hear  the 
trains  thundering  past,  but  what  it  all  means, 
and  which  of  them  they  should  take,  is  a 
mystery  they  cannot  solve. 

Some  hold  the  policy  of  drift. — They  are  like 
a  water-logged  vessel  on  the  ocean,  or  the  flot- 
sam and  jetsam  which  drift  aimlessly  to  and 
fro  between  our  London  bridges.  Without  an 
idea  of  their  destination,  like  the  prophet,  they 
go  down  to  the  nearest  port,  pay  their  fare, 
and  go  aboard  the  first  boat  that  is  leaving 
the  quay,  and  take  their  chance  whether  they 
land  East  or  West,  and  whether  the  boat  is 
a  merchantman  or  a  man-of-war. 

Others  hold  the  policy  of  pleasure. — Their 
one  idea  is  to  have  a  good  time,  placing  their 
own  construction  on  the  phrase,  according  to 
their  predilections.  In  his  essay  on  George 
Eliot,  Lilly  reminds  us  of  the  question  put  by 
Sir  Toby  Belch  in  Twelfth  Night,  v/ho  inquires  : 
'*  Do  not  our  lives  consist  of  the  four  ele- 
ments ?  "  And  to  whom  Sir  Andrew  Ague- 
cheek  replies  :  *'  Faith,  so  they  say,  but  I 
think  it  rather  consists  of  eating  and  drink- 
ing."    The   quotation   is  followed   up  by   a 

6 


There  is  a  Way  Through 

picture    of    everyday  existence  sketched   by 
another  hand : 

"  What  is  the  course  of  the  life  ' 
Of  mortal  men  on  the  earth  ? 
Most  men  eddy  about 
Here  and  there — eat  and  drink, 
Chatter  and  love  and  hate, 
Gather  and  squander,  are  raised 
Aloft,  are  hurled  in  the  dust, 
Striving  blindly,  achieving 
Nothing ;    and  then  they  die — 
Perish  !    and  no  one  asks 
Who  or  what  they  have  been, 
More  than  he  asks  what  waves 
In  the  moonlit  solitude  wild 
Of  the  midmost  ocean  have  swelled, 
Foamed  for  a  moment,  and  gone." 

A  miserable  poHcy  of  hfe,  surely,  for  which 
no  thoughtful  person  can  cherish  an  atom  of 
desire  ! 

Others  adopt  the  policy  of  fatalism. — For 
them,  as  for  the  Moslem,  it  is  always  Kismet. 
They  were  born  under  an  unlucky  star. 
It  is  always  their  fate  to  meet  with  dis- 
appointment and  trouble.  If  their  invest- 
ments turn  out  badly,  or  their  home  is  visited 
with  a  run  of  sickness,  or  a  murrain  takes  their 
cattle,  and  a  fire  burns  down  their  house,  their 
one  creed  is  that  their  lot  fell  out  of  the  wrong 
side  of  the  jar — it  cannot  be  helped !    Their 

7 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

favourite  book  in  Scripture  is  Ecclesiastes. 
The  earlier  chapters  are  as  well  worn  in  their 
Bible  as  Isaiah  xl.  or  John  xiv.  in  that  of  the 
simple  cottager  of  whom  Cowper  tells.  These 
verses  contain  the  main  articles  of  their  creed  : 
''  That  which  hath  been  is  that  which  shall  be  : 
all  things  are  full  of  weariness  :  as  it  happeneth 
to  the  fool,  so  will  it  happen  to  me  ;  O,  why 
was  I  not  more  wise  ?  What  hath  a  man  of  all 
his  labour,  for  all  his  days  are  but  sorrow  and 
his  travail  is  grief.    This  also  is  vanity." 

But  none  of  these  policies  can  satisfy  the 
thoroughly  healthy  soul.  Their  appeal  is  in- 
compatible with  its  nobler  instincts  and  intui- 
tions, especially  when  they  are  quickened  by 
a  great  inspiration  from  above. 

In  an  interesting  snatch  of  autobiography, 
Mark  Rutherford  tells  us  that  when  he  was  a 
good  way  past  middle  life  he  became  the 
possessor  of  a  large  astronomical  telescope. 
He  confesses  that  he  was  little  better  than  a 
star-gazing  amateur,  who  might  have  been 
regarded  as  an  object  of  contempt  by  the 
youngest  assistant  in  the  Nautical  Almanac 
office.  He  set  to  work,  however,  unaided,  set 
up  and  adjusted  his  instrument,  and  was  soon 
able  to  find  any  star  within  its  range.  Almost 
every  clear  night  he  spent  hours  in  simply 
looking,  with  never-failing  wonder.    He  says  : 

8 


There  is  a  Way  Through 

"  When  I  went  into  the  observatory  on  a 
winter's  night,  when  I  shut  the  door,  opened 
the  roof,  and  set  the  driving  clock  going,  the 
world  and  its  cares  were  forgotten.  How  could 
they  be  remembered  in  the  presence  of  Perseus, 
as  he  slowly  came  into  view,  falling  westward 
across  the  sky,  mysterious,  awful,  beauti- 
ful, without  hurry,  rest,  acceleration,  or 
delay  !  " 

Later  on  he  bought  a  spectroscope,  and 
was  enabled  to  see  what  he  held  to  be  almost 
the  most  tremendous  spectacle  in  the  universe 
— flames  of  glowing  gas  shooting  up  thousands 
of  miles  from  the  body  of  the  sun  like  volcanic 
explosions.  In  the  light  of  such  a  spectacle,  he 
felt  that  the  pretensions  and  self-importance 
of  man  were  reduced  to  absurdity  for  their 
almost  entire  irrelevance. 

The  inspiration  that  came  to  Mark  Ruther- 
ford may  come  to  us  from  other  sources ;  but 
from  whatever  source,  the  mind  which  is  thus 
healthily  and  divinely  energised  cannot 
imagine  that  it  alone,  of  all  the  wonderful  uni- 
verse of  which  it  forms  a  part,  is  a  creature 
without  aim  or  purpose,  chart  or  course,  an 
amoeba  floating  on  the  ocean,  the  sport  of 
chance  or  fate.  All  around,  and  especially  in 
the  marvellous  constitution  of  the  body,  there 
are  many  and  manifest  traces  of  design :  surely, 

9 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

there  is  design  in  the  sending  forth  of  the 
human  soul  which  will  justify  the  wise  good- 
ness of  the  Almighty.  ''  Thou  has  made  man 
a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  but  Thou  hast 
planted  that  in  him,  which  enables  him  to 
measure  himself  against  Orion.'* 

This  has  always  been  the  conviction  of 
those  strong  and  healthy  souls  that  have  led 
the  march  of  the  generations  of  mankind. 
They  may  have  often  been  sorely  perplexed 
with  the  rebuffs  they  met  with,  the  blind  alleys 
that  attracted  them,  but  from  which  they  had 
to  retrace  their  steps,  and  the  many  contra- 
dictions and  problems  with  which  they  were 
confronted  ;  but  they  have  never  surrendered 
the  faith  that  there  was  a  purpose  in  life,  that 
there  was  a  way  marked  out  for  them  to  tread, 
a  mission  to  fulfil,  a  high  calling  which  called 
to  them  from  the  upper  skies,  and  which  they 
dared  not  refuse. 

The  instances  of  this  fill  our  library  shelves, 
but  we  may  take  for  example  two  compara- 
tively recent  ones,  of  men  in  many  respects 
very  diverse  in  temperament  and  experience. 

In  Sir  Walter  Scott's  diary  for  1827,  when, 
amid  his  terrible  misfortunes,  he  actually  con- 
templated taking  refuge  in  the  Isle  of  Man  or 
in  the  sanctuary  of  Holyrood  to  escape  his 
merciless  creditors,  there  occurs  this  entry  : 

10 


There  is  a  Way  Through 

"  But  I  will  not  let  this  unman  me.  Our  hope, 
heavenly  and  earthly,  is  poorly  anchored  if  the 
cable  parts  upon  the  stream.  I  believe  in  God, 
who  can  change  evil  into  good,  and  I  am  con- 
fident that  what  befalls  us  is  always  ultimately 
for  the  best.'* 

And  the  late  Bishop  Francis  Paget  wrote  : 
*'  I  think,  as  I  look  back  upon  my  life,  that 
there  is  hardly  a  single  thwarting  of  my  wishes, 
hardly  a  single  instance  where  things  seemed 
to  go  against  me,  in  which  I  cannot  even  now 
see  that,  by  God's  profound  mercy,  they  really 
went  for  me  all  the  while.  So  that  if  I  could 
have  looked  forward  only  so  far  as  the  time 
now  present,  I  should  have  longed  for  and 
welcomed  all  those  things  which  I  have  feared 
and  grudgingly  accepted.  .  .  .  There  is  no- 
thing that  God  does  not  work  into  His  perfect 
plan  of  our  lives.  All  lives  converge,  all  move- 
ments tend  to  do  His  will,  on  earth  as  in 
heaven." 

But  from  ordinary  experiences,  we  turn  to 
the  Master,  who,  throughout  His  life,  was  con- 
scious of  its  purpose  and  plan,  and  of  the  way 
which  led  Him  through  the  years.  ''  The  Son 
can  do  nothing  of  Himself,"  He  said  on  one 
memorable  occasion,  ''  He  can  only  do  what 
He  sees  the  Father  doing  ;  for  whatever  He 
does,  that  the  Son  does  also  in  like  manner ; 

II 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

and  greater  deeds  than  these  will  He  reveal 
unto  Him."    There  was  no  break  or  pause  in 
that  fellowship  between  the  Father  and  Him- 
self in  His  great  progress  from  Bethlehem  to 
the  Ascension  Mount ;    and,  therefore,  with 
absolute  truth,  at  the  close,  He  was  able,  on 
the  review  of  His  earthly  career,  to  say  :    '*  I 
have  done  perfectly  the  work  which,  by  Thine 
appointment,  it  was  Mine  to  do."    For  Him 
also  there  was  a  goal  to  be  reached,  a  mission 
to  be  accomplished  ;   He  trod  the  perfect  way 
of  fellowship  and  obedience  ;    and  though  to 
human  eyes  it  might  have  appeared  as  though 
His  days  were  cut  short  by  an  untimely  death, 
He  knew  that  the  Temple  of  His  Life-work 
stood  complete  to  the  topmost  stone.     From 
the  first  He  knew  that  He  must  be  about  His 
Father's  business,  that  He  was  sent  to  cast 
fire  on  the  earth,  and  to  be  baptised  with  a 
baptism  of  blood.   Each  step  of  the  ways  that 
threaded  Palestine,  whether  to  the  Well  of 
Sychar,  the  summit  of  the  Mount  of  Beatitudes, 
or  the  descent  from  the  Mount  of  Transfigura- 
tion, had  been  marked  out  for  His  most  blessed 
feet,  from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world. 
The  sweet  path  that  led  to  Martha's  home  on 
Olivet,  and  the  via  dolorosa  that   led  to  the 
Cross,  were  alike  traced  on  the  map  of  His 
pilgrimage  between  the  manger-bed  of  Beth- 

12 


There  is  a  Way  Through 

lehem  and  the  summit  of  the  Mount  of  the 
Ascension.  There  was  no  accident,  no  room 
for  the  intrusion  of  unanticipated  emergen- 
cies, no  foothold  for  fortuitous  circumstances. 
The  Son  of  Man  went  as  it  was  written  of  Him. 
He  was  deHvered  to  each  incident  of  His 
career  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  fore- 
knowledge of  God. 

And  what  was  true  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
whose  life  sums  up  and  contains  all  human 
experiences,  is  equally  true  of  all.  This  is  the 
universal  teaching  of  that  compendium  of 
universal  biography — the  Bible.  According  to 
its  teaching  each  soul  is  a  poem,  each  a  study; 
each  a  distinct  creation,  as  really  as  that  of 
the  flower  in  all  its  glory  or  the  planet  which 
swings  around  the  sun.  Each  individual  may, 
in  a  modified  sense,  appropriate  those  great 
words  of  Christ :  ''  For  this  cause  was  I  born, 
and  for  this  I  came  into  the  world.''  Not  only 
were  the  lives  of  Abraham  and  David,  of  Cyrus 
and  Daniel,  of  Augustine  and  Luther  necessary 
to  the  fulfilling  of  the  Divine  programme,  but 
yours  and  mine  are.  There  must  be  pawns  on 
the  chess-board  as  well  as  kings  and  queens. 
If  the  planets  are  balanced  with  such  nicety 
that  the  mountains  have  to  be  weighed  in 
scales  and  the  hills  in  a  balance,  surely  man, 
who  lives  at  the  central  point  of  eternities  and 

13 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

immensities,  must  be  here  for  a  purpose.  He 
is  no  phantom  child  flung  up  on  time's  beach 
by  the  vagaries  of  the  infinite  ocean.  What 
is  true  of  the  race  as  a  whole  is  obviously  true 
of  each  individual  unit,  and,  therefore,  we  may 
thoughtfully  and  reverently  adopt,  each  one, 
that  great  sentence  of  Fichte  :  ''  It  is  most 
certain,  and,  indeed,  the  ground  of  all  other 
certainty,  that  the  moral  order  of  the  world 
exists — that  for  every  intelligent  being  there 
is  an  appointed  work  which  he  is  expected  to 
perform,  and  that  every  circumstance  of  his 
life  is  a  part  of  a  plan." 

The  Christians  of  the  First  Era  were  never 
weary  of  talking  of  *'  the  Way."  It  was  one  of 
the  commonplaces  of  their  speech,  and  in  its 
use  they  implied  that  there  was  a  beginning 
and  an  end,  a  gate  of  entrance  and  a  goal  of 
accomplishment,  a  purpose,  a  direction,  and 
an  end.  Before  Paul  had  formulated  his  great 
arguments  for  Justification,  or  Peter  had 
elaborated  his  plea  for  a  Divine  patience,  or 
John  had  built  up  his  treatise  on  the  Love  of 
God  as  grafted  on  to  human  hearts,  the  simple 
folk  who  had  entered  through  the  Beautiful 
Gate  into  the  Temple  of  a  New  Age,  spoke  of 
Christianity  as  the  Way  everlasting,  along 
which,  as  by  a  causeway  spanning  a  morass, 
the  soul  might  safely  make  its  momentous 

14 


There  is  a  Way  Through 

passage  across  the  quaking  quagmires  of  this 
transitory  scene. 

It  is  needless  to  cite  more  than  a  few  of 
these  many  references.  ''  This,'*  said  the 
Apostle,  ''  I  confess  unto  thee,  that  after  the 
Way  I  serve  the  God  of  our  fathers  "  :  ''Felix 
had  more  exact  knowledge  concerning  the 
Way  '\-  ''  There  arose  no  small  stir  about  the 
Way." 

But  as  is  the  universal  so  is  the  particular. 
It  is  not  enough  to  speak  generally  about  the  \ 
way,  we  must  believe  in  it  for  ourselves,  and  v. 
dare  to  act  on  the  assumption  that  He  who  i 
by  a  mysterious  leading  conducts  the  migra-   I 
tory  birds  in  their  yearly  passage  from  their  f) 
northern  feeding  grounds  to  the  sunny  south, 
flying  so  far  above  us,  night  and  day,  that  we 
cannot  catch  the  babel  of  their  many  voices, 
is  leading  each  of  us  by  a  way,  even  though  it 
is  a  way  that  we  know  not,  not  having  passed 
it  heretofore,  which  will  bring  us  through  and 
out   on  those   bright   tablelands  where   God 
Himself  is  Sun.   ''  And  I  saw  no  Temple  there- 
in, for  the  Lord  God,  the  Almighty  and  the 
Lamb,  are  the  Temple  of  it.   And  the  nations 
of  the  saved  walk  in  the  light  of  it." 

There  is  a  way  through  life  for  each  of  us, 
to  take  which  is  to  have  fulfilled  the  purpose 
of  our  being,  to  keep  which  is  to  attain  the 

15 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

maximum  of  blessedness  within  our  reach, 
The  mystic  caught  sight  of  it  when  he  spoke 
of  Via  crucis,  via  lucis  ;  and  Bunyan  described 
it  in  his  matchless  allegory.  But,  of  course 
we  may  miss  it,  or  be  allured  from  it,  or  may 
stumble  and  maim  ourselves  by  taking  an- 
other and  apparently  parallel,  though  more 
tortuous  or  precipitous  track.  **  Remember 
Lot's  wife  !  " 

It  is  essential,  then,  that  we  should  not 
only  believe  that  there  is  a  way  through  life, 
but  that  we  should  secure  a  guide  in  whose 
sure  knowledge  our  ignorance  may  confide 
absolutely,  and  in  whose  mighty  hand  our 
weakness  may  become  strong  when  the  head 
turns  dizzy  and  the  feet  are  about  to  slide. 


16 


II 

THE   GUIDING  HAND 

Who  that  has  once  witnessed  it  can  ever  for- 
get the  scene  in  the  front  of  a  Swiss  mountain 
hotel,  where  in  the  early  morning  guides  are 
waiting  to  be  engaged,  or  to  fulfil  the  appoint- 
ment made  on  the  previous  evening.  There 
they  are  with  their  bronzed  faces  and  their 
lithe,  well-knit  frames,  with  their  alpenstocks, 
ropes,  and  other  appliances,  with  their  keen 
sight  and  deft  hands.  Many  men  of  their  class 
have  imperilled  and  sacrificed  their  lives  for 
their  charges,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  any 
of  these  would  cheerfully  do  the  same  were  it 
required.  You  select  your  guide,  chat  pleas- 
antly among  the  lower  gradients,  listen  to  his 
yarns,  consult  his  weather  forecasts,  gladly 
take  his  hand  as  you  cross  the  glaciers,  not 
afraid  of  their  crevasses,  blue  with  distance, 
allow  him  to  rope  you  at  a  dangerous  point, 
and  trust  him  when  the  mist  suddenly  enwraps 
you  in  its  clammy  veil,  or  night  begins  to 
darken  on  the  cold  white  mountains. 

Life  is  a  climb  across  the  mountains,  from 
the  ice-clad  slopes  of  Switzerland  to  the  vine- 

c  17 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

clad  slopes  of  Italy.  There  is  a  way  over,  but 
it  is  foolish  and  foolhardy  to  attempt  it  with- 
out a  g^ide.  There  is  a  guide  for  each  human 
I  soul,  but  the  strange  condition  of  his  assistance 
is  that  he  shall  be  unseen.  Lord  Tennyson  ex- 
pected  to  see  his  Pilot,  face  to  face,  only  after 
he  had  crossed  the  bar  !  He  who  comes  to  us 
in  life's  early  morning,  saying,  *'  I  am  the 
Way,"  is  one  of  whom  it  is  true  that  not  having 
seen  we  love. 

But  though  we  see  Him  not,  and  frequently 
refuse  to  avail  ourselves  of  His  help.  He  is 
ever  beside  us,  often  interposing  His  unsolicited 
and  timely  help  when  we  had  almost  come  to 
grief  through  our  headstrong  follies.  When  we 
ascend  into  the  heavens  of  earthly  bliss  and 
happiness,  we  find  Him  there  ;  when  we  de- 
scend into  the  depths  of  mortal  misery  and 
despair,  we  find  Him  there  ;  when  we  take  the 
wings  of  life's  morning,  and  dwell  in  the  utter- 
most parts  of  Western  lands,  through  their 
unexplored  distances,  we  discover  that  His 
hand  leads  and  His  right  hand  upholds.  Even 
when  we  think  that  the  darkness  must  have 
enshrouded  us  from  His  finding,  we  suddenly 
hear  His  secret  whisper  amid  the  impene- 
trable gloom,  and  are  aware  of  His  fragrant 
breath  upon  our  cheek  ;  yea,  the  night  is 
luminous,   and  the  darkness  is  as  the  day. 

i8 


The  Guiding   Hand 

Such  knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  us,  it  is 
high,  and  we  cannot  attain  to  it. 

When  we  speak  of  this  universal  Presence 
it  reminds  us  of  the  words  which  Virgil  uses 
in  another  sense  :  *'  Myself  will  lead  thee, 
when  the  sun  has  kindled  the  heat  of  noon, 
when  the  grass  is  athirst  and  the  shade  now 
grows  more  grateful  to  the  flock,  until  thou 
comest  to  the  old  man's  covert,  his  retreat 
from  the  weary  waves." 

It  is  this  guiding  Presence  that  comes  to 
all  men  in  Christ,  who  is  the  true  Light  which 
enlighteneth  everyone  coming  into  the  world. 
For  some  that  Light  shines  more  clearly  than 
for  others.  For  some  it  is  a  glow-worm's  spark  ; 
for  others  it  resembles  that  star  which  shone 
clearly  in  the  water  that  Dante  passed  on  his 
way  to  find  the  Rose  of  Paradise.  But  to  some 
extent,  and  in  some  measure,  Christ  speaks 
in  every  human  breast.  To  those  who  never 
knew  Him  after  the  flesh.  He  came  at  sundry 
times  and  in  divers  manners,  by  the  voices  of 
Nature,  of  religious  teachers,  and  of  the  heart, 
but  to  us  in  the  unmistakable  revelation, 
with  which  as  Christianity  He  has  enriched 
mankind.  To  all  He  sa^^s  :  ''I  am  the  Way, 
...  He  that  foUoweth  Me,  shall  not  walk 
in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the  light  of  life." 
Wherefore,  we  may  say  boldly  :    ''  The  Lord 

19 


Life   and  the  Way  Through 

is  my  Light  and  my  salvation,  whom  shall 
I  fear  ?  The  Lord  is  the  strength  of  my  life,  of 
whom  shall  I  be  afraid  ?  *' 

Though  we  cannot  see  our  Guide,  it  is 
essential  that  we  should  be  in  constant  touch 
with  Him  amid  the  various  incidents  of  daily 
life.  Our  fingers,  though  they  be  as  the  fingers 
of  blind  men,  must  be  in  perpetual  contact 
with  His,  as  we  handle  the  same  affairs.  It  is 
under  such  a  condition  that  He  can  fulfil  His 
own  promise  :  *'  I  will  bring  the  blind  by  a 
way  that  they  know  not,  and  lead  them  in 
paths  that  they  have  not  known.  ...  I  will 
go  before  them,  and  make  the  crooked  places 
straight,  and  the  rough  places  smooth.  .  .  . 
These  things  will  I  do  unto  them  and  not 
forsake  them.'' 

This  condition,  however,  is  so  important 
that  we  must  in  a  few  more  sentences  set  it  out. 
Every  occurrence  in  life  has  an  outward  and 
inward  value.  The  outer  has  to  do  with  the 
objective,  our  environment  of  time  and  space  ; 
whereas  the  inner  has  to  do  with  the  sub- 
jective and  subliminal,  which  speaks  in  the 
heart,  and  is  connected  with  the  Eternal  and 
Infinite.  The  real  significance  of  all  that  hap- 
pens to  us  must,  therefore,  be  approached  from 
within.  Directly  we  perceive  this  profound 
truth,  and  enter  into  the  inner  meaning  and 

2Q 


The  Guiding   Hand 

essential  nature  of  the  endless  series  of  events 
that  pass  before  us  like  the  film  of  a  cinemato- 
graph— we  get  near  our  Guide  ! 

In  1897  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund  dis- 
covered a  single  page  of  a  book,  recording 
some  reputed  sayings  of  Jesus  which  do  not 
appear  in  any  of  the  Gospels.  The  best-known 
and  most  striking  of  these  Logia  is  :  ''  Raise 
the  stone,  and  there  thou  shalf  find  me  ;  cleave 
the  wood,  and  there  am  I  " — a  saying  which 
was  paraphrased  in  Scribne/s  Magazine  in  the 
following  lines  : 

"  Where  the  many  toil  and  suffer 

There  am  I  among  my  own ; 
Where  the  tired  workman  sleepeth 

There  am  I  with  him  alone; 
Never  more  thou  needest  seek  me, 

I  am  with  thee  everywhere ; 
Raise  the  stone  and  thou  shalt  find  me, 

Cleave  the  wood.,  and  I  am  there." 

These  words  affirm  the  truth  which,  when 
its  significance  is  properly  appreciated,  will 
transform  life.  Our  daily  experiences  will 
have  a  new  meaning  so  soon  as  we  learn  to 
associate  them  with  the  presence  and  fellow- 
ship of  Jesus  Christ.  Get  to  the  inner  secret 
of  the  stone  and  the  wood  !  We  may  do 
this  because  it  is  as  true  now  as  at  the  first 
moment  of  creation,  that  in  Him  all  things 

21 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

are  being  made,  and  that  in  Him  all  things 
consist.  Behind  the  form  and  breath  of 
every  flower,  behind  the  waving  beauty  of  the 
glorious  forests,  behind  the  strength  of  the 
hills  and  the  many  waves  of  the  seas,  behind 
the  fair  expanse  of  the  heavens  and  the  be- 
witching calm  of  a  summer's  eve,  behind  the 
beauty  and  innocence  of  a  little  child,  behind 
everything  and  everyone,  if  you  reach  down 
below  the  outward  appearance  and  crust 
3^ou  will  come  at  last  to  the  presence  and 
love  and  guidance  of  Him  who  is  the  First- 
begotten  from  the  dead  and  the  Prince"  of 
the  Kings  of  the  Earth.  At  the  heart  of  all 
that  happens  to  us,  our  finger-tips  may  touch 
His.  As  we  live  deeply  we  have  fellowship 
with  His  Spirit.  Nothing  ever  befalls  us  at 
the  core  of  which  we  cannot  find  Him.  In 
the  centre  of  every  whirlwind  of  trouble,  in 
the  glowing  heart  of  every  furnace  of  fire, 
in  the  interior  of  every  house  of  sorrow,  in 
the  holy  place  of  every  bereavement,  at  the 
pivot  and  focus  of  each  responsibility,  below 
the  rough  surface  of  every  irksome  duty,  we 
shall  always  find  the  Word  of  God,  whose 
glory  was  reflected  in  the  days  of  His  flesh 
on  the  waters  of  the  Galilean  lake,  when  it 
shone  through  the  curtains  of  His  humanity. 
Whilst   we  realise  this,   and   keep  in  touch 

22 


The   Guiding   Hand 

with  Him,  we  advance  along  the  predestined 
path  to  its  goal. 

The  same  truth  may  be  illustrated  in 
another  way.  One  of  the  finest  woman-intel- 
lects of  the  present  day  is  Helen  Keller's. 
But  on  account  of  the  darkening  of  her 
sight,  to  say  nothing  of  other  senses,  it  would 
never  have  emerged  had  not  one  devoted 
woman  given  herself  absolutely  to  the  awak- 
ening and  unfolding  of  the  imprisoned  mind. 
For  years  they  were  inseparable  companions, 
and  all  correspondence  between  the  outward 
world  and  Miss  Keller's  soul  was  maintained 
through  her  friend's  patient  and  devoted 
mediation.  They  were  always  dealing  with 
each  other  in  regard  to  every  incident  of 
daily  experience.  Transfer  that  conception 
to  the  intercourse  between  the  human  soul 
and  Christ,  and  it  must  be  instantly  appar- 
ent to  the  dullest  intelligence  what  a  new 
zest  and  fascination  will  stream  through  to 
the  soul  which  learns  that  it  need  not  with- 
draw itself  from  the  objective  world  into  a 
hermit's  cell,  but  may  find  its  discipline,  its 
incentive,  its  joy  and  crown  of  rejoicing,  in 
an  unbroken  fellowship  with  Christ,  along 
the  prosaic  and  ordinary  course  of  life. 

So  we  shall  come  to  the  City  of  God. 
There  is  a  strange  story  in  the  Old  Testa- 

23 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

ment  of  an  army  being  conducted  to  a  dis- 
tant city  by  the  personal  leadership  of  the 
prophet.  They  seem  to  have  been  mes- 
merised in  some  strange  fashion,  so  that 
they  thought  less  of  the  way  they  took  than 
of  the  presence  of  their  guide,  and  he  led 
them  into  the  city.  *'  And  it  came  to  pass, 
when  they  were  come  into  Samaria,  that, 
Elisha  said,  Lord,  open  the  eyes  of  these 
men  that  they  may  see.  And  the  Lord 
opened  their  eyes,  and  they  saw  ;  and  behold 
they  were  in  the  midst  of  Samaria."  Simi- 
larly— though  the  parallel  does  not  perfectly 
hold,  because  Samaria  was  a  hostile  city — 
those  of  us  who  occupy  ourselves  with  Christ, 
whom  not  having  seen  we  love,  and  who  in 
our  blindness  resign  ourselves  to  His  leader- 
ship, will  one  day  discover  that  in  our  devo- 
tion to  Him  we  have  made  progress  along  the 
Way,  and  at  last  find  ourselves  amid  the 
solemn  troops  and  sweet  societies  of  the  City 
of  God. 


24 


Ill 

THE   JEWELLED   GATE 

We  are  speaking  and  thinking  of  the  ideal 
way  through  Ufe,  and  naturally,  since  we  are 
sure  that  there  is  such  a  way,  it  is  of  prime 
importance  to  find  the  gate.  It  may  well 
be  called  the  Beautiful  Gate  of  the  Temple  of 
Life,  and  when  the  sun  shines  on  it,  as  we 
view  it  in  the  retrospect,  it  flashes  as  though 
it  were  wrought  of  burnished  gold  and  set 
with  glistening  jewels.  The  arch  of  Hope 
is  supported  on  the  two  pillars  of  Faith  and 
Love. 

(1)  FAITH 

The  first  symptom  of  the  awakening  of  the 
Spirit  is  faith.  This  to  the  soul  is  what  the 
senses  of  the  body  are  to  a  new-born  child. 
Through  the  open  gates  of  sight  and  touch, 
of  the  ear,  the  nostril,  and  the  tongue,  the 
outer  world  begins  to  stream  in  on  the  soul, 
which  has  just  arrived  from  the  Infinite. 
Similarly,  it  is  through  faith  that  the  influences 
from  the  Divine  and  the  Infinite  begin  to 
stream  in  upon  the  soul.  As  the  senses  are 
recipients  of  the  one,  so  is  faith  of  the  other. 

25 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

As  the  impressions  of  the  outer  world  re- 
ceived through  the  senses  are  certain  and 
sufficient,  so  by  faith  the  soul  is  certified  of 
the  existence  of  a  spiritual  world  in  which  it 
lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being. 

Faith  is  that  faculty  of  the  human  spirit 
through  which  it  perceives,  and  by  which  it 
welcomes,  those  uprushes  and  inrushes  from 
the  spiritual  realm  which  supply  a  new  and 
wonderful  dynamic  to  such  as  are  willing 
to  pay  the  price.  Just  as  our  wide-awake 
consciousness  throws  open  our  nature  to 
receive  through  the  senses  the  impact  of 
things  material,  so  through  faith  we  throw 
open  our  nature  to  receive  the  impact  of  the 
Eternal  and  Infinite ;  and  instantly  tidal 
waves  begin  to  pour  up  the  estuaries,  from 
which  the  sand-bars  have  been  dredged  out, 
and  there  is  a  silence  in  the  heart  as  when 
the  Severn  meets  the  babbling  Wye.  The 
moment  when  this  contact  is  first  made  is 
what  we  know  as  conversion.  In  conver- 
sion we  first  perceive,  with  the  wonder  of 
discovery,  that  there  need  be  no  barrier  be- 
tween us  and  the  Eternal  Holiness  and  Love. 
We  choose  that  on  our  side  there  shall  be 
none,  and  thenceforward  reckon  that  there 
is  none.  Then,  as  the  life-stream  enters,  it 
is  with  us  as  with  the  far  stretches   of   the 

26 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

Soudan  into  which,  but  the  other  day,  the 
Nile  waters  were  diverted.  Forthwith  the 
desert  begins  to  rejoice  and  wrap  her  naked- 
ness around  with  living  verdure. 

In  his  natural  condition  man  is  separated 
from  the  life  of  God  by  a  great  rampart  of 
rock,  like  that  which  separates  Tibet  from 
the  plains  of  Northern  India.  Led  by  an 
unerring  impulse,  he  sets  to  work  to  pene- 
trate that  wall,  as,  in  constructing  the  Mont 
Cenis  tunnel,  the  engineers  wrought  with 
pickaxe  and  explosives  from  the  northern 
slopes  of  the  Alps.  He  knows  that  he  belongs 
not  to  the  winter  but  the  summer,  not  to 
the  bleak  snow-peaks  but  the  warm  sunlit 
plains,  which  lie  under  the  kiss  of  perpetual 
sunshine.  Then,  as  he  works  on  through  the 
darkness,  he  becomes  suddenly  aware  of  the 
dull  thud  which  comes  from  the  other  side 
of  the  intervening  rocky  barrier.  It  is  clear 
that  Another  is  working  towards  him.  The 
blows  become  increasingly  resonant,  until 
the  last  stroke  breaks  an  aperture  through 
the  remaining  film  and  he  stands  face  to 
face  with  his  fellow-worker,  and  his  dazzled 
eyes  gaze  on  the  far-spread  panorama.  That 
moment  of  rapture,  when  the  last  barrier 
falls,  and  we  see  the  Christ  stand,  is  the 
moment  of  illumination.     It  is  the  moment 

27 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

of  vision,  of  revelation,  of  the  certainty  of 
assurance,  and  the  demonstration  of  things 
not  seen  by  unanointed  eyes. 

Perhaps  the  most  wonderful  revelation 
of  all  is  that,  at  that  moment,  the  soul  sud- 
denly perceives  that  through  all  its  past  the 
Divine  Comforter  and  Guide  has  been  work- 
ing and  moving  towards  it.  Though  the 
human  has  not  sought  the  Divine,  the  Divine 
has  sought  the  human.  The  Almighty  Lover 
has  not  only  been  waiting  on  the  sunlit 
slopes  for  the  emergence  of  the  seeker,  but 
has  been  inspiring  and  conducting  his  efforts, 
timing  the  hour,  and  determining  with  more 
than  mathematic  exactitude  the  plane  of 
approach.  Thus,  as  we  follow  on,  we  come 
to  know  the  Lord,  whose  going  forth  is  pre- 
pared as  the  morning. 

To  state  the  fact  in  the  terms  of  modern 
philosophy — in  Conversion  religious  concep- 
tions, ideals,  forces,  that  had  previously  lain 
on  the  outer  rim  of  the  soul,  hardly  recog- 
nised and  seldom  used,  take  the  central 
place,  and  become  the  driving  forces  of  a 
new  life.  The  soul  scraps  its  old  machinery 
and  procures  new.  It  exchanges  candle- 
light for  electric,  and  horse-power  for  petrol. 
It  begins  to  avail  itself  of  forces  that  belong 
to   higher   planes   of   existence.     It   is   dead 

28 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

to  the  lower,  and  keenly  alive  to  the  higher. 
In  other  words,  it  is  born  out  of  the  limita- 
tions that  cramped  it  into  the  liberty  of  the 
sons  of  God. 

This  makes  a  vast  difference.  Dr.  Star- 
buck  finds  analogies  in  other  directions, 
which,  though  of  a  lower  order,  may  serve  to 
illustrate  the  greatness  of  the  change.  An 
athlete,  for  instance,  may  for  years  go  on 
perfecting  his  knowledge  of  the  rules  of  the 
"  game  and  adding  to  his  muscular  develop- 
ment ;  but  there  may  come  a  day  when  all 
at  once  he  ceases  to  play  the  game,  and  the 
game  plays  itself  through  him.  He  loses 
himself  in  some  great  contest,  and  stands  no 
longer  in  need  of  the  applause  of  the  arena. 

A  preacher  may  have  perfect  command 
of  his  art  ;  his  every  sentence  may  flash 
with  brilliance  of  thought  and  expression  ; 
his  sermons  may  extort  the  ungrudging 
admiration  alike  of  masters  in  theology  and 
professors  of  rhetoric,  yet  he  may  not  attain 
to  the  front  rank  in  his  profession  until  one 
day  he  casts  aside  his  MSS.  and  rules  of 
art  before  an  overmastering  rush  of  inspired 
eloquence.  Poets,  too,  have  been  conscious 
of  moments  when  they  were  lifted  into  a 
plane  of  freedom  and  power  which  previously 
had    been    absolutely    be3^ond     their    reach. 

2y 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

Wagner  had  been  a  musician  before  that 
subHme  moment  when  his  genius  was  awoke 
by  a  strain  of  Mendelssohn.  Many  a  young 
girl,  though  she  has  spent  years  in  patient 
study  and  practice,  may  still  be  conscious 
that  she  has  not  yet  gained  glow,  passion, 
and  the  soul  of  music  ;  but  one  day,  appar- 
ently unsought,  the  entire  secret  is  made 
known,  the  divine  ecstasy  falls  on  her,  and 
from  that  hour  she  sways  the  souls  of  her 
audiences  as  by  a  spell.  These  are  illustra- 
tions culled  from  other  realms,  but  they  are 
as  moonlight  to  sunlight,  when  compared 
with  the  full  glory  of  Conversion. 

In  her  illuminating  book  on  ''  Religious 
Genius,"  *  Miss  Swetenham  has,  therefore, 
abundant  warrant  for  saying  that  to  the 
religiously  inspired  man  **  Conversion  is  the 
great  central  event  of  life."  We  agree  with 
her  that  this  unique  and  wondrous  experi- 
ence burns  itself  into  his  memory,  so  that 
his  soul  glows  with  it  for  years  afterwards. 
He  knows  that  it  was  no  fleeting  impression, 
that  it  was  not  a  light-footed  fancy,  touch- 
ing with  slight  foot-prints  the  yielding  sands, 
to  be  instantly  obliterated  by  the  returning 
wave  ;  but  that  it  was  a  divine  act,  im- 
parting a  divine   radiance,  and  empowering 

♦  Hodder  and  Stoughton. 
30 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

with  a  divine  energy.  It  was  the  moment 
when  the  soul  was  filled  with  God-conscious- 
ness, so  that  what  had  been  dead  lived  and 
what  had  been  content  with  the  surface 
of  things  found  itself. 


The  Materialist  knows  nothing  of  all  this. 
He  lives  only  on  the  one  side  of  his  nature 
that  looks  out  on  the  material  and  natural. 
What  wonder  that  he  is  bewildered  1  His 
senses  exclude  more  than  they  reveal  of  the 
vast  environing  universe.  He  resembles  our 
Anglo-Saxon  forefathers,  whose  windows  were 
made  of  horn  ;  or  the  Japanese,  who  make 
them  of  paper.  If  we  use  our  physical  senses 
only,  we  are  like  Hagar,  the  Egyptian  slave- 
girl,  as  she  viewed  the  sand-wastes  around 
her,  but  failed  to  descry  the  fountain  of 
water  ;  or  like  Balaam,  who  beheld  the 
high  walls  of  the  vineyards  on  either  side, 
but  missed  the  vision  of  the  Angel,  which 
even  his  ass  saw ;  or  like  the  prophet's  ser- 
vant, who  was  dismayed  at  the  spectacle  of 
the  enemy's  hosts  that  engirdled  the  city, 
but  was  oblivious  to  the  horses  and  chariots 
of  fire  that  formed  an  inner  cordon  of  pro- 
tection. There  are  eyes  and  eyes — the  eyes  of 
the  physical  sense,  which  behold  the  objects 

31 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

of  their  own  sphere,  with  marvellous  keen- 
ness and  accuracy;  but  only  the  inner  eye 
is  able  to  discern  the  things  which  God  hath 
prepared. 

The  materialist,  therefore,  is  much  to  be 
pitied.  He  refuses  everything  for  which  he 
cannot  get  mathematical  proof,  takes  nothing 
on  trust,  and  refuses  to  trouble  himself 
with  anything  outside  the  cognisance  of  his 
senses.  Who  knows  anything  beyond  this 
world  ?  he  argues.  Here  at  least  there  are 
matters  we  can  understand  and  be  sure  of. 
Here  are  deserts  to  be  irrigated,  waste  lands 
to  be  reclaimed,  slums  to  be  destroyed, 
garden  cities  to  be  created,  facilities  to  be 
obtained  for  education  and  recreation.  Let 
us  make  new  conditions  of  life  ;  thus  we 
shall  regenerate  society.  It  is  a  disappoint- 
ing Credo,  for  the  whole  experience  of  the 
past  goes  to  prove  that  no  amount  of  whiten- 
ing on  the  sepulchre  will  resuscitate  the  dead. 
And  the  soul  of  its  professor  becomes  dwarfed 
and  starved,  as  he  pursues  his  work  under 
starless  skies.  In  his  literature,  it  has  been 
truly  said,  there  is  no  poetry  ;  in  his  music 
no  hymn  ;  in  his  architecture  no  cloister  ; 
in  his  soul  no  prayer  ;  no  altar  lamp  to  keep 
the  watch  ;  no  still  small  voice  in  Horeb's 
cave. 

32 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

Materialism  shouts  question  after  ques- 
tion into  the  Cave  of  Destiny,  but  listens 
with  the  wrong  ear  for  the  reply.  It  waits 
at  the  wrong  wharf  for  the  returning  ship. 
Therefore  the  disciples  of  this  dreary  system 
profess  themselves  worshippers  at  the  shrine 
of  an  everlasting  No.  Thus  the  fair  garden 
of  life  becomes  a  grim  desert,  filled  with  the 
howling  of  wild  beasts  or  the  groans  of  hate- 
filled  despair.  There  is  no  pillar  of  cloud 
by  day,  no  pillar  of  fire  by  night.  The 
universe  is  without  form  and  void,  and 
no  brooding  spirit  moves  on  the  face  of  the 
deep.  Natural  law  is  just  one  huge,  im- 
measurable steam-engine,  rolling  on  in  dead 
indifference  to  grind  men  limb  from  limb. 

But  the  position  of  the  materialist  is 
becoming  less  and  less  tenable  as  science 
pursues  its  researches  in  these  remarkable 
years.  The  findings  of  modern  investigation 
are  more  and  more  in  the  direction  of  the 
spiritual  nature  of  things  which  appear  most 
substantial.     In  fact,  the  very  rocks  are  fluid. 

Sir  William  Ramsay,  for  instance,  dis- 
covered recently  that  if  an  electric  discharge 
is  passed  through  a  vacuum  tube  containing 
a  little  hydrogen,  two  rare  gases  appear — 
helium  and  neon.  These  can  be  produced 
by  the  recomposition  of  hydrogen  atoms,  or 

D  33 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

by  the  action  of  the  electrical  force  out  of 
nothing  at  all.  Referring  to  these  experi- 
ments, an  acute  observer,  who  probably 
would  not  rank  himself  with  the  Church, 
says :  '*  It  is  the  very  nemesis  of  mate- 
rialism to  discover  that  the  solid  atoms  on 
which  it  has  built  are  not  material  at  all. 
But  if  there  be  no  such  thing  as  matter, 
materialism  would  appear  to  be  only  the 
latest  of  many  superstitions.  Modern  chemis- 
try doubts  whether  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  matter,  which  has  a  birth,  a  life,  and  a 
death,  but  a  death  which  leaves  no  corpse 
to  bury.  It  looks  as  though  Sir  William 
Ramsay  and  his  fellow-chemists  had  suc- 
ceeded in  building  atoms  out  of  the  raw 
material  of  atoms,  which  are  not  material 
things  at  all,  but  only  a  mode  of  energy.'* 


The  creed  of  materialism,  therefore,  can- 
not satisfy,  and  we  are  amply  justified  in 
obeying  the  direction  of  those  higher  in- 
stincts of  the  human  mind,  which  prompt 
towards  the  Unseen  Holy,  and  asseverate 
the  existence  of  the  Everlasting  Father. 
Whenever  there  is  an  instinct,  there  is  a 
reality  to  meet  it.  For  the  migrating  bird 
there  is  the  sunny  south  ;    for  the  babe  the 

34 


The  Jewelled   Gate 

mother's  breast ;  for  the  soul,  bewildered  and 
blind,  a  Hand  to  lead  it  along  a  path  which 
it  cannot  see,  but  which  is  as  clearly  marked 
as  the  paths  which,  from  times  immemo- 
rial, have  been  trodden  by  the  natives  in 
uncivilised  lands. 

Thoma^  Carlyle  was  kept  from  drifting 
because  of  his  tight  hold  on  two  great  elemen- 
tary truths — the  first,  that  God  reveals  Him- 
self to  the  spirit ;  and  the  second,  that  it  is 
always  right  to  do  right. 

"  If  e'er  when  faith  had  faU'n  asleep, 
I  heard  a  voice,  *  Believe  no  more,* 
And  heard  an  ever  breaking  shore 
That  tumbled  in  the  Godless  deep ; 

A  warmth  within  the  breast  would  melt 
The  freezing  reason's  colder  part, 
And  like  a  man  in  wrath  the  heart 

Stood  up  and  answer' d,  "  I  have  felt." 

The  reasonings  of  mind  and  heart  are  con- 
firmed, as  we  have  seen,  by  Scripture  and  ex- 
perience. There  is  a  way  through  life,  though 
man's  blindness  may  grope  for  it  in  vain  ;  and 
there  is  a  hand  that  will  lead  the  faltering  feet 
of  the  pilgrim  to  find  his  home.  The  one  inex- 
orable condition  for  all  of  us  is  that  we  should 
be  willing  to  be  led.  There  is  a  path,  and  our 
Father  sees  it  clearly,  though  we  cannot,  for 

35 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

we  are  fools  and  blind.  We  cannot  even  see 
our  Guide,  but  He  is  near.  The  pressure  of 
His  hand  is  upon  ours,  and  His  voice  speaks 
in  the  silence  of  the  soul.  He  that  hath  ears 
to  hear,  let  him  hear ! 

"  Speak  to  Him,  then,  for  He  hears,  and  spirit  with 
spirit  can  meet  ; 
Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands 
and  feet." 

Faith  may,  then,  be  described  as  the  sixth 
sense.  It  is  the  comprehensive  term  for  all  the 
senses  of  our  spiritual  nature — that  part  of  us 
which  opens  out  on  the  eternal  world,  and  is 
made  sensitive  and  operative  by  conversion. 
The  new  birth  is  the  issuing  of  the  soul  from 
the  cramping,  confining  conditions  of  its  origin 
into  the  width  and  space  of  the  spiritual  and 
eternal ;  and  to  the  twice-born  soul.  Faith  is 
as  natural  and  inevitable  as  sight,  hearing, 
touch,  smell,  and  taste  are  to  the  new-born 
babe.  We  are — we  repeat — perfectly  justified, 
therefore,  in  relying  on  the  affirmation  of 
Faith.  As  Emerson  puts  it  :  ''  They  who  be- 
lieve have  an  access  to  the  secrets  and  struc- 
ture of  Nature  by  some  better  method  than 
experience."  What  is  this  except  to  say  that 
Faith  is  the  assurance  of  things  hoped  for,  the 
proving  of  things  not  seen. 

36 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

We  cannot  but  recall  those  great  words  of 
William  James,  in  one  of  the  closing  pages  of 
'*  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience "  : 
*'  The  whole  drift  of  my  education  goes  to  per- 
suade me  that  the  world  of  our  present  con- 
sciousness is  only  one  out  of  many  worlds  of 
consciousness  that  exist,  and  that  those  other 
worlds  must  contain  experiences  which  have 
a  meaning  for  our  life  also  ;  and  that  although, 
in  the  main,  their  experiences  and  those  of 
this  world  keep  distinct,  yet  the  two  become 
contiguous  at  certain  points,  and  higher 
energies  filter  in.  By  being  faithful  in  my  poor 
measure  to  this  over-belief,  I  seem  to  myself 
to  keep  more  sane  and  true.  I  can,  of  course, 
put  myself  into  the  sectarian  scientist's  atti- 
tude, and  imagine  vividly  that  the  world  of 
sensations  and  of  scientific  laws  and  objects 
may  be  all.  But  whenever  I  do  this,  I  hear 
that  inward  monitor  of  which  W.  K.  Clifford 
once  wrote,  whispering  the  word  *  Bosh  !  ' 
Humbug  is  humbug,  even  though  it  bear  the 
scientific  name  ;  and  the  total  expression  of 
human  experience,  as  I  view  it  objectively, 
invincibly  urges  me  beyond  the  narrow  scien- 
tific bounds.  Assuredly,  the  real  world  is  of 
a  different  temperament — more  intricately 
built  than  physical  science  allows." 

The  seat  of  Faith  is  in  the  heart,  or,  as  we 

37 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

would  call  it  to-day,  in  the  subliminal  con- 
sciousness. This  is  our  other  and  better  self. 
It  is  the  shaft  driven  through  our  being  to  the 
Infinite,  at  the  antipodes  of  daily  life.  It  is 
the  orifice  up  which  the  fountain  of  life,  con- 
cerning which  Jesus  spake  to  the  woman, 
springs.  But  we  must  give  time  for  the  fussy 
activities  of  existence  to  subside,  as  the  silt 
does  when  you  let  muddy  water  stand  in  its 
jar.  What  a  contrast  in  the  Rhone  between 
entering  and  leaving  the  deep  and  quiet  waters 
of  Leman!  The  sub-conscious  or  subliminal 
must  have  time  to  assert  itself,  and,  therefore, 
the  early  morning  is  the  day's  prime.  The 
hubbub  of  the  streets,  even  for  Jesus,  must 
yield  to  the  morning  silence  of  Olivet. 

We  must  also  watch  against  every  evil 
thing  that  might  detract  from  the  singleness 
of  our  spiritual  vision  or  the  quickness  of  our 
response  to  the  appeal  of  the  unseen  and 
eternal  influences.  It  is  only  by  continual 
watchfulness  against  the  selfish  and  evil  ele- 
ments in  our  nature  that  we  can  keep  the 
windows  of  the  soul  clean,  and  hold  the  heights 
that  we  have  scaled  with  hard  and  incessant 
toil.  When  these  conditions  are  preserved, 
the  spirit  will  lie  open  to  the  south  winds  of 
God,  wafting  into  the  soul  the  fragrance  of 
Paradise. 

38 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

Such  faith  becomes  the  habitual  attitude 
of  the  soul.    It  will  not  lead  to  a  mischievous 
quietism.    Indeed,  none  work  so  persistently 
and  energetically  as  those  who  work  out  what 
God  works  in,  and  are  aware  of  the  pulse  and 
throb  of  the  divine  life.    Their  only  anxiety  is 
lest  they  lose  one  ounce-weight  of  pressure 
through  self-indulgence,  indolence,  or  inatten- 
tion.    The  soul  must  follow  hard  after  God. 
"  Then,'*  to  quote  true  and  eloquent  words, 
*'  the  sense  of  God's  presence  will  be  with  us 
in  our  going  out  and  coming  in,  as  a  source  of 
absolute  repose  and  confident  calm,  securing 
us  against  terror  and  anxiety.    From  Him,  as 
from  a  never-failing  source,  we  shall  be  amply 
supplied,  and  we  shall  acquire  the  momentary 
habit,  in  all  times  of  our  tribulation,  tempta- 
tion, or  wealth,  of  drawing  upon  His  fullness, 
and  grace  upon  grace." 


But  it  may  be  that  this  ideal  seems  an 
impossible  one.  It  strikes  my  readers  as  too 
mystical  and  transcendental  to  serve  them. 
It  is  high ;  they  cannot  attain  to  it.  Then  let 
us  state  the  successive  steps  after  another 
fashion,  illustrating  them  from  the  great  life 
of  John  the  Baptist. 

It   will  be  remembered  that  there  were 

39 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

three  marked  phases  in  his  experience.  First, 
there  was  the  religion  of  tradition.  As  soon  as 
he  awoke  to  the  consciousness  of  his  own  being 
he  found  himself  in  a  priest's  home,  with  every 
thing  around  him  that  spoke  of  the  traditions 
and  aspirations  of  his  people.  Hard  by  was  the 
cave  of  Machpelah,  with  its  sacred  dust  ;  not 
far  away,  Samson  had  wrought  his  mighty 
exploits  ;  nearly  every  valley  had  some  remin- 
iscence of  David,  either  as  the  shepherd  or  the 
king.  Whenever  his  father  returned  from  the 
temple  services  there  was  much  to  hear  of 
the  holy  psalmody,  the  solemn  rites,  the  vast 
gatherings  of  the  nation  to  worship  the  God 
of  their  fathers.  The  earliest  ambition  of  the 
growing  boy  was  to  be  permitted  to  participate 
in  those  splendid  ceremonials.  Under  the  tutel- 
age of  that  aged  pair,  how  could  he  do  other 
than  imbibe  those  high  and  holy  influences  ? 
Thus,  like  his  father  and  mother,  he  eagerly 
waited  for  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  and  the 
redemption  of  Israel. 

Years  passed,  and  brought  great  changes  in 
that  mountain-home.  The  son  saw  the  darken- 
ing shadows  draw  over  the  two  dear  faces  that 
had  bent  over  him  in  childhood,  and  closed 
their  eyes  in  the  last  sleep.  Then  he  was  free 
to  live  his  own  life.  But  the  winnowing-fan 
was  passing  over  the  floor  of  his  religious  con- 

40 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

victions,  and  he  saw  the  hollowness  of  much 
of  the  traditional  religion  of  his  age.  Already 
he  had  detected  the  poison  that  lay  beneath 
the  specious  system  of  Pharisaism,  and  had 
seen  how  the  people  bolstered  themselves  up 
by  the  reflection,  that  whatever  their  lives 
might  be,  they  yet  had  Abraham  for  their 
father,  and  must,  therefore,  be  God's  chosen. 
The  hollowness  and  heartlessness  of  the  reli- 
gion of  the  day  nauseated  that  ardent  young 
spirit,  and  drove  him  into  the  desolate  high- 
land country,  where  he  might  live  in  direct 
contact  with  the  elementary  facts  of  Nature, 
God,  and  his  own  soul.  The  traditional  piety 
of  his  boyhood  was  there  exchanged  for  the 
religion  of  Reality.  He  built  for  himself,  taught 
only  by  God,  who  spoke  to  him  by  the  voices 
of  the  prophets,  of  the  wild  scenery  of  the 
wilderness,  and  of  his  own  deep  nature.  The 
passion  that  burnt  in  his  soul  unquenchably 
was  for  Reality.  He  must  get  beneath  shams 
and  counterfeits,  must  bore  to  the  virgin 
metal  that  lay  below  the  accretions  of  tradition 
and  ritual,  must  get  at  the  facts  of  the  eternal 
world  for  himself.  And  so  he  did.  The  effect 
was  immediate,  and  whether  he  arrested  cara- 
vans on  their  route  to  Jerusalem,  or  addressed 
the  miners  who  wrought  among  the  hills,  it 
seemed  as  though  in  him  that  old  promise  was 

41 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

fulfilled  :  ''I  will  come  near  to  judgment ;  and 
I  will  be  a  swift  witness  against  the  sorcerers, 
and  adulterers,  and  false  swearers,  and  against 
those  that  oppress  the  hireling  in  his  wages, 
the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  and  that  turn 
aside  the  stranger  from  his  right.  .  .  .  But 
who  may  abide  the  day  of  His  coming,  for  he 
is  like  a  refiner's  fire,  and  like  fuller's  soap.'* 

Immediately  his  message  received  a  great 
response.  Men  who  were  tired  of  the  hollow- 
ness  and  falsehood  of  their  times  streamed 
out  to  him  from  all  the  cities  ;  and  the  young 
men,  specially,  in  the  ardour  of  an  un- 
quenchable passion  for  righteousness,  left 
their  nets  and  boats,  their  sickles  and  pruning 
hooks,  their  homes  and  friends,  in  order  to 
expose  their  lives  to  those  heart-searching 
appeals.  ,  j 

But  in  the  midst  of  this  national  awaken- 
ing, when  he  swayed  the  hearts  of  men,  from 
Herod  on  his  throne  to  the  Gentile  soldiers 
of  the  Roman  occupation,  John  was  not 
satisfied.  The  voice  that  had  spoken  in  his 
heart  and  sent  him  forth  on  his  great  mission 
assured  him  that  he  was  not  only  to  pro- 
claim but  personally  to  see  and  know  the 
Coming  One,  whose  shoe  latchet  he  was  un- 
worthy to  loose,  and  whose  baptism  would 
supersede  his  own  as  fire  water.     He  looked 

42 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

eagerly  into  every  face  for  the  visage  of  the 
Messiah,  and  watched  after  every  baptism 
for  the  opened  heavens  and  the  descending 
dove.  Six  months  passed.  All  the  people 
were  now  baptised  and  were  waiting  ex- 
pectantly. The  committee  of  the  Sanhedrin 
had  come  and  gone  with  their  questions, 
with  no  further  satisfaction  than  the  assur- 
ance that  John  was  not  the  Christ  ;  then, 
when  patience  had  wrought  her  perfect  work 
in  the  heart  of  the  Forerunner,  and  as  his  own 
cousin,  whom  he  had  never  recognised  as 
the  Coming  One,  came  up  out  of  the  water, 
the  promised  sign  was  afforded,  and  he 
saw,  and  tasted,  and  handled  of  the  Word  of 
life,  and  his  joy  was  fulfilled.  For  six  weeks 
he  kept  his  secret  locked  in  his  heart,  and 
then,  as  he  beheld  the  Christ  coming  to- 
wards him,  with  an  unearthly  glory  on  His 
face,  the  result  of  his  triumph  in  the  wil- 
derness, the  Baptist  could  contain  himself  no 
more,  but  cried,  saying,  '*This  is  He  of  whom 
I  spake.'*  His  religion  then  had  become  one  of 
direct  and  perfect  vision. 

These  same  three  phases  are  still  experi- 
enced in  the  history  of  the  soul,  in  its  ever- 
lasting quest  for  truth.  There  is,  first,  the 
traditional  stage.  We  believe  because  we 
were  taught  to  believe,  and  accept  without 

43 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

questioning  the  facts  which  parents,  teachers, 
and  ministers  of  rehgion  inculcate  and  en- 
force. The  doctrines  of  the  Christian  Creed, 
the  accepted  theory  of  Inspiration,  the  dis- 
tinctive tenets  of  that  section  of  the  Church 
to  which  our  people  are  attached — these  are 
accepted  as  part  of  the  nature  of  things,  not 
to  be  understood,  or  explained,  or  ques- 
tioned, but  accepted  as  final,  authoritative, 
and  satisfactory. 

Then  we  experience  a  great  awakening. 
We  go  up  with  our  parents  to  the  Temple, 
and    find    ourselves    separated    from    them. 
They  feel  that  they  have  lost  us,  they  seek 
us  sorrowing,   they  cannot  understand  that 
other    considerations    are    appealing    to    us 
which  seem  of  paramount  importance.     This 
is    our    Father's    business.     We    must    ask 
questions  in  the  Temple  shrine,  whether  the 
answers  are  satisfactory  or  not.     Our  soul  is 
awake,  our  eyes  are  open  ;    we  are  specially 
keen   to   detect    any   evasions,  superficiality, 
and  hypocrisy,  wherever  they  may  be  found, 
and    especially    among    religious    professors. 
We  have  started  on  our  wander-year.     We 
go  through  the  world,  hammer  in  hand,  tap- 
ping  every   appearance   to    see   whether    it 
is  solid  or  not.     But  at  this  moment,  when 
we    have    drifted     from    our    old    moorings 

44 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

and  not  found  our  new  course,  when  we  have 
razed  our  old  home  and  not  erected  another, 
when  we  have  sacrificed  our  ancient  teachers 
without  determining  on  others,  we  are  ex- 
posed to  very  serious  peril,  and  it  is  here 
that  a  few  rules  may  be  helpful : 

First  :  be  true  to  yourself  and  to  what 
you  have  so  far  realised.  Do  not  profess 
more  than  you  have  experienced,  and  cer- 
tainly not  less.  Let  your  inner  temper  be 
neither  convex  nor  concave,  but  like  a  pane 
of  clear  and  even  glass. 

Second  :  never  doubt  that  you  will  come 
out  into  perfect  vision.  He  that  is  of  the 
truth  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  King  of 
Truth,  and  see  His  face.  Though  the  vision 
tarry,  wait  for  it ;  assuredly  it  will  come  and 
will  not  tarry. 

Third  :  live  up  to  your  highest  ideals.  Be 
pure  and  humble.  ''It  is  of  vast  import- 
ance," says  one  of  our  greatest  teachers, 
''  whether  the  soul,  which  is  to  live  for  ever, 
is  a  truthful,  pure,  and  noble  soul,  made 
strong  through  the  conquest  of  many  and 
great  temptations  ;  with  affections  set  upon 
all  that  is  good  and  beautiful ;  with  a  con- 
science that  clearly  sees  the  difference  be- 
tween right  and  wrong ;  and  with  a  firm 
will,  resolute  to  choose  the  right. 

45 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

Fourth :  If  you  cannot  as  yet  accept 
Christ  in  the  full-orbed  glory  which  is  set 
forth  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  John,  begin 
where  John  himself  began — as  a  disciple. 
A  disciple  is  just  a  learner,  one  that  enters 
the  class  of  the  famous  teacher,  and  puts 
himself  under  the  regimen  and  discipline 
which  the  Master  prescribes.  The  mistake 
of  so  many  in  the  present  day  is  that,  because 
they  cannot  accept  the  whole  truth  about 
our  Lord,  as  set  down  in  the  creeds  and  for- 
mularies of  the  Church,  therefore  they  turn 
away  and  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  Him. 
They  are  staggered  at  the  conclusions  to 
which  they  who  sit  in  the  upper  forms  have 
been  brought,  though  they  are  commended 
by  the  highest  ideals  and  noblest  characters, 
and  therefore  they  refuse  to  enter  themselves 
as  scholars  and  sit  in  the  lowest  form.  To 
say  the  least,  this  course  is  very  irrational. 
Christ  does  not  ask  us  to  accept  a  system  of 
doctrine,  but  to  become  scholars  and  dis- 
ciples under  His  regimen  and  instruction. 
He  knows  that  our  eyes  cannot  stand  the 
sudden  blaze  of  uncreated  glory,  and  there- 
fore tenders  us  the  mellowed  beauty  of  the 
human  and  natural.  All  He  wants  is  that 
we  should  come  and  see.  He  will  not  answer 
our  questions  and  unveil  His  secrets  before 

46 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

we  have  come  ;  but  afterwards  all  will  be 
made  clear.  The  order  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is,  in  a  vast  number  of  cases,  the  true 
order.  We  sit  at  Christ's  feet  and  hear  His 
words  ;  are  enamoured  by  His  ideals  and 
penetrated  by  the  power  of  His  utterance. 
We  find  that  He  is  Himself  the  exemplar 
of  all  He  teaches  us  to  honour  and  cherish. 
We  become  more  and  more  attached  to  Him, 
feel  His  spell,  adopt  His  conceptions,  appre- 
ciate them  with  a  growing  conviction  ;  and 
then  suddenly,  when  He  drops  the  veil  and 
tells  us  of  great  facts  and  truths  which  we 
could  never  have  discovered,  we  are  already 
acclimatised  and  prepared,  and  fall  at  His 
feet,  saying  :  ''  The  Son  of  God  has  come 
and  given  us  an  understanding  that  we 
may  know.'' 

Let  us  still  further  expand  this  thought, 
casting  it  into  the  form  of  a  parable.  Sup- 
pose that  you  become  possessed  of  a  motor- 
car. You  have  purchased  it,  or  it  has  been 
given  to  you.  Your  next  thought  is  to 
obtain  a  chauffeur  who  is  acquainted  not 
only  with  the  great  city  in  which  you  are 
living,  and  with  every  street  of  which 
you  are  familiar,  but  with  the  surrounding 
country,  of  which  you  are  only  partially 
acquainted.     Among  other  applicants  for  the 

47 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

situation,  one  man  presents  himself  who 
says  that  he  has  a  thorough  knowledge  not 
only  of  London,  we  will  say,  but  of  the 
adjacent  counties.  You  engage  him  on  trial 
that  you  may  test  the  accuracy  of  this 
statement.  On  the  first  day  you  direct  him 
to  a  certain  building  in  a  distant  part  of 
the  city,  and  you  know  that  he  takes  you 
by  the  most  direct  route.  On  the  second 
day  you  indicate  as  your  destination  a 
point  in  quite  another  direction,  and  which 
requires  a  precise  knowledge  of  the  district 
in  which  it  lies.  You  are  keenly  critical,  but 
must  admit  that  the  congeries  of  small  streets 
could  not  have  been  navigated  with  better 
skill.  On  the  third  day  you  resolve  to  go 
into  one  of  the  outlying  counties — Essex  or 
Cambridge,  for  example.  You  do  not  per- 
sonally know  the  road,  but  your  chauffeur 
gives  no  sign  of  hesitation,  and  goes  straight 
by  what,  as  you  reflect  on  the  matter,  is 
evidently  the  most  direct  route.  You  at 
last  say  to  yourself  :  *'  He  took  me  so 
directly  and  expeditiously  where  I  could 
test  him,  that  now  I  will  trust  him,  where 
my  knowledge  is  at  fault."  You  make  final 
arrangements  with  this  man,  and  he  well 
repays  your  selection. 

It  is  thus  with  faith  in  regard  to  higher 

48 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

things.     The  young  man  grows  away  from 
the  traditional  religion   which    satisfied    his 
parents,    but    which    seems    too    narrow   for 
himself.     He  wants  to  be  sure  for  his  own 
satisfaction,  and  to  be  strong  in  his  convic- 
tions, because  based  on  his  personal  experi- 
ence.    He  cannot,   we   will  suppose,   accept 
the  Deity  of  Christ,  or  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Atonement,  or  the  supreme  claim  of  Scrip- 
ture ;    but  as  he  views  the  effect  that  Chris- 
tianity  has   had   on   the   world,    and   hears 
those  whom  he  respects  talk  of  Christ  with 
a  unique  reverence  and  affection,  he  resolves 
that  he  will  enter  as  a  pupil  of  the  great 
Master — so  far,  at  least,  as  His  moral  pre- 
cepts are  concerned.     At  the  outset  Christ 
says   to    him :     '*  Blessed    are    the    pure    in 
heart,   for    they   shall    see   God — Be  pure." 
From  that  hour  he  examines  every  truant 
desire  that  craves  admission  to  his  fancy  ; 
he  turns  away  from  suggestive  pictures  and 
books ;     he   avoids   the   old   companionships 
which    stank    like    an    open    sepulchre.     He 
pursues  this  regimen  for  some   weeks,   and 
discovers  not  only  that  he  has  a  sense  of 
inward   happiness,    of   which   he   had   never 
before   tasted,    but    that    his    vision    of    the 
unseen   and   divine   is   greatly  clarified.     He 
sees  the  eternal   snow-peaks  peering  through 
E  49 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

the   mists  that   hitherto  had  always  veiled 

them. 

After  awhile  he  returns  to  the  Master 
and  asks  for  further  instruction,  and  the 
Master  says  :  '*  Give  and  it  shall  be  given 
you  ;  with  what  measure  you  mete,  it  shall 
be  measured  to  you  again — Live  to  give.'' 
Again  he  applies  himself  to  his  task.  Hitherto 
he  has  been  self-contained,  inclined  to  hoard, 
uncommunicative,  and  close.  But  he  alters 
the  whole  method  of  life,  and  becomes  as 
a  running  brook  which  is  ever  pouring  forth 
to  meet  all  the  needs  that  call  on  its  suppUes. 
A  new  smile  is  on  his  face,  a  new  freedom  in 
his  manner,  a  new  self-forgetfulness,  a  new 
ministry.  What  is  the  result  ?  The  beautiful 
old  words  are  fulfilled  in  his  daily  experi- 
ence. "  When  the  ear  hears  his  footstep,  then 
it  blesses  him  ;  and  when  the  eye  beholds 
his  coming,  it  gives  witness.  The  blessing 
of  him  that  is  ready  to  perish  comes  upon 
him.  His  glory  is  fresh  upon  him,  and  his 
bow  is  renewed  in  his  hand."  He  has  again 
verified  the  trustworthiness  of  Christ,  testing 
him  in  a  department  of  life  which  is  well 
within  his  cognisance. 

In  following  days  other  and  always 
more  intimate  words  are  spoken.  There  is 
no  "  Yea  "  and   *'  Nay,"  but  certainty,  pre- 

50 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

cision,  urgency.  He  begins  to  understand  and 
appreciate  Christ's  great  system,  and  as  he 
does  His  will  he  knows  more  and  more  of  the 
doctrine.  His  climb  up  the  hill  of  obedience 
unfolds  to  him  further  and  further  pano- 
ramas of  truth.  Things  which  had  puzzled 
him  are  unravelled,  and  he  often  wonders 
that  they  could  have  been  stumbling-blocks 
in  his  path.  His  admiration  and  loyalty 
are  always  on  the  increase  ;  but  as  yet  the 
Master  has  not  introduced  matters  beyond  his 
pupil's  range. 

One  day,  however.  He  says :  ''  Let  us  spend 
a  day  together  on  the  high  mountains." 
Right  gladly  the  young  man  accepts  the 
invitation.  He  can  hardly  sleep  on  the  pre- 
ceding night  for  very  joy.  The  thought  that 
the  Master  cares  to  expend  on  him  His  time 
and  care  is  full  of  inexpressible  delight.  At 
dawn  he  is  ready,  and  they  begin  to  climb. 
When  they  have  gained  a  considerable  height, 
and  are  resting  at  a  spot  where  the  scenery 
presents  a  surpassing  grandeur  and  loveli- 
ness, a  light  steals  over  the  Master's  face 
which  imparts  a  heavenly  beauty,  as  He 
says,  ''  I  and  My  Father  are  One."  Almost 
involuntarily  the  pupil  falls  at  His  feet, 
saying  :  ''  Ah,  my  Master  and  Friend,  here 
I  cannot  verify  Thy  words  by  my  poor  ex- 

51 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

perience,  but  I  trust  Thee.  I  found  Thee 
true  in  regions  where  I  could  discover  for 
myself  the  accuracy  and  helpfulness  of  Thy 
words,  and  now  I  take  this  great  saying  of 
Thine  to  my  heart,  and  accept  it  as  the 
Truth." 

A  little  higher  in  the  ascent  the  Master 
says :  *'  This  is  My  blood,  shed  for  many,  for 
the  remission  of  sins."  Again  the  disciple 
says :  *'  Here  again  I  cannot  verify  Thy 
words  from  my  experience,  but  on  Thy  testi- 
mony I  accept  them  as  the  truth." 

Thus  Christ  unfolds  the  truths  of  His 
Evangel  to  receptive  souls  until  they  fall  at 
His  feet  with  Thomas's  confession.  Was  not 
this  the  method  He  adopted  with  the  fisher- 
men of  Galilee  ?  Could  He  have  expected 
John  or  Peter  to  accept  the  statements  which 
they  themselves  made  afterwards  in  their 
Epistles  ?  It  would  not  have  been  possible. 
Not  even  His  miraculous  deeds  could  have 
lifted  them  to  those  high  levels.  They  had 
to  associate  with  Him  in  daily  intercourse, 
to  watch  Him  in  His  hours  of  retirement,  to 
rely  on  Him  in  days  of  opposition  and  nights 
of  storm,  and  so  they  were  gradually  fitted 
to  receive  and  transmit  the  Faith,  once  for 
all  delivered  to  the  Church. 

But  let  it  be  ever  remembered  that  our 

52 


The  Jewelled  ^Gate 

faith  will  grow  just  in  proportion  as  we  are 
daily  surmounting  some  higher  peak  of  diffi- 
culty, treading  under  foot  some  insidious 
evil,  refusing  some  pleasant  temptation  for 
the  truth's  sake,  allowing  ourselves  to  be 
swept  out  of  ourselves  by  love,  and  giving 
ourselves  to  such  high  labours  as  shall  test 
and  strain  our  moral  muscles  and  elicit  the 
completest  response  of  spiritual  faculty. 

To  sum  up  :  Faith  may  be  said  to  be  the 
soul's  Intuition  of  Christ,  as  the  Solvent  of  all 
difficulty  and  the  Absolver  and  Antidote  of 
Sin.  The  heart  first  discovers  its  affinity  with 
Him  ;  and  the  head  thereafter  formulates  the 
science  and  doctrine.  But  whatever  happens 
about  these,  and  however  long  a  time  elapses, 
before  a  true  and  satisfactory  formulary  is  dis- 
covered, the  prime  necessity  is  for  the  union 
of  the  soul  with  Christ  to  be  unimpaired.  If 
that  is  maintained.  He,  by  His  Spirit,  will  lead 
into  all  the  truth.  Chief  amongst  other  dis- 
coveries will  be  that  of  the  Bible  as  the  Word 
of  God.  The  Christian  believer  who  holds 
fellowship  with  Christ  will  certainly  and  in- 
evitably be  led  to  the  Book  which  was  so  much 
to  Him.  He  will  feed  on  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures  as  the  Master  fed  on  them.  They 
will  be  bread  and  honey  to  his  taste.  And,  in 
the  New  Testament,  he  will  find  a  close  and 

53 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

intimate  congruity  with  all  his  personal  find- 
ings. He  will  be  conscious  that  the  same  voice 
speaks  there  as  in  his  heart.  He  will  become 
convinced  that  the  Word  and  the  words  have 
emanated  from  the  same  source.  The  Bible 
will  become  his  armoury,  his  tool-closet,  his 
treasure-house,  and  his  observatory  ;  the  holy 
and  Divinely  inspired  gift  of  the  Spirit  of 
Truth. 


54 


IV 

THE   JEWELLED    GATE  (Continue) 
(2)  LOVE 

This  is  a  most  necessary  ingredient,  if  the 
cup  of  life  is  to  be  of  the  rarest  quahty,  admin- 
istering perpetual  blessedness  to  the  soul, 
because  it  administers  incessant  helpfulness  to 
others ;  but  we  must  be  sure  that  we  get  the 
genuine  article,  as  there  are  many  counterfeits 
passing  in  current  circulation. 

Anacreon  begins  one  of  his  poems  by  saying 
that  he  can  only  sing  of  love ;  but  on  his  lips 
the  word  had  a  connotation  which  was  alto- 
gether different  from  that  with  which  it  has 
been  invested  since  the  beginning  of  this  era. 
In  fact,  Christianity  had  to  perform  for  this 
word  and  others  the  same  office  that  mission- 
aries have  frequently  to  perform  in  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Scriptures  into  the  languages  of 
African  tribes,  selecting  words  for  their  pur- 
pose, which  have  had  other  and  lower  signifi- 
cance, cleansing  and  reminting  them.  Before 
Christianity  came,  love  had  meant  largely  the 
fire  of  self-indulgence,  henceforth  it  was  to  stand 
forthe  pure  flame  of  an  unquenchable  self -giving. 

55 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

In  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  to 
use  the  ordinary  term,  though  it  is  really  a 
prose-poem  of  love,  the  Master  clearly  fore- 
shadowed this  change.  From  the  old  days  of 
Moses,  love  had  been  in  constant  usage  as  a 
necessary  part  of  the  equipment  of  the  religious 
soul ;  but  it  had  remained  unillumined,  as  the 
red  sandstone  peaks  of  Sinai's  desert  before 
sunrise.  Christ  unfolded  the  true  significance  of 
the  word.  He  cleft  the  rock,  and  it  flowed  with 
living  water.  In  love,  as  He  understood  it, 
there  was  an  absolute  breaking  down  of  old 
prejudices  and  reservations.  It  overleapt  the 
alienation  of  race,  for  the  Samaritan  was 
despised  and  abhorred  by  the  Jew,  as  a 
mongrel ;  and,  on  his  part,  he  was  not  stinting 
in  reciprocal  hatred.  It  defied  the  narrow 
definitions  of  creed,  on  which  the  orthodox 
prided  themselves,  for  this  rare  plant  grew  on 
a  foreign  soil,  where  it  was  least  expected, 
whilst  in  those  who  stood  forth  as  the  acknow- 
ledged exponents  of  orthodoxy,  it  was  scandal- 
ously absent.  It  differed,  by  a  whole  heaven, 
from  the  sentiment  of  pity,  which  the  ancients 
were  prepared  to  extol,  because  the  stranger 
risked  a  further  murdersome  attack  by  the 
robber  gang,  which  might  have  cost  his  life- 
blood,  and  freely  expended  time,  thought,  care 
and   money   on   the   wounded  stranger,  too 

56 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

far  gone  even  to  appeal  to  him  for  help,  but 
lying  there  helpless  in  his  blood.  A  sentiment 
which  was  irrespective  of  race,  of  religion,  and 
of  the  soft  appeal  to  complacency  or  pity,  was 
the  ideal  which  Christ  propounded  that  day 
to  the  astonished  crowd  as  His  conception  of 
Love! 

More  than  this,  as  we  shall  see.  He  filled  in 
the  outlines  of  His  conception  with  the  living 
colours  of  His  own  career.  Indeed,  when  the 
great  Apostle,  who  probably,  after  Christ,  is  the 
greatest  Christian,  painted  in  immortal  colours 
his  conception  of  Christian  love,  it  was  the 
Master  Himself  who  sat  for  the  portrait.  Each 
line  of  I  Cor.  xiii.  was  true  of  Him,and  even  then 
the  half  was  not  told.  One  has  often  tried  to 
imagine  the  amazement  with  which  St.  Paul's 
amanuensis  must  have  looked  up  from  his 
paper,  when  transcribing  from  the  Apostle's 
lips  these  burning  words.  They  had  been  wad- 
ing together  through  intricate  problems  of 
Church  discipline  and  order  ;  the  babble  of  dis- 
cordant voices  had  been  filling  the  air  ;  strong 
and  clear-cut  analyses,  founded  on  subtle  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  distinctions,  had  been 
enunciated  and  recorded  ;  there  had  been  no 
continuous  flow  of  thought  or  speech.  The 
Apostle  had  laboriously  picked  his  difficult 
way  through  his  argument.    But  suddenly  all 

57 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

this  was  altered  and  from  his  Hps  there  poured 
forth  this  streari  of  liquid  gold.  To  us,  looking 
back  on  it  over  the  level  tract  of  the  centuries, 
it  seems  like  a  gleam  of  sunshine  breaking 
from  a  stormy  sky  on  a  verdureless  and  tem- 
pest-riven range. 

But  the  Apostle  was  himself  an  embodi- 
ment of  the  Love  that  he  described  so  elo- 
quently. He  was  a  debtor  to  all  men  for  love's 
sake.    It  might  be  the  judge  on  the  tribunal 
on  whose  verdict  his  own  fate,  humanly  speak- 
ing, depended,  or  a  poor  demon-haunted  girl  on 
the  street — for  him  love  levelled  all  distinctions, 
and  offered  its  stores  with  the  same  lavish 
generosity.     To  many  he  seemed  beside  him- 
self. Felix,  in  a  rare  tribute,  exclaimed  :  *Taul, 
thou  art  beside  thyself,   much  learning  has 
made  thee  mad  !  "  But  whether  he  was  beside 
himself,  it  was  to  God  ;  or  sober,  it  was  for  the 
cause  he  loved.  The  love  of  Christ  constrained 
him,  as  a  boiling  torrent  is  constrained  within 
the  narrow,  rocky  banks  on  either  side.   When 
he  spoke  in  this  way,  he  did  not  surely  intend 
his  natural  love  to  Christ,  but  the  love  of 
Christ,  in  its  pure  and  eternal  essence,  which 
had  inundated  his  soul.    He  thus  judged,  that 
since  the  One  had  died  for  all,  those  who  appre- 
ciated His  supreme  self-giving  should  no  longer 
live  unto  themselves,  but  unto  Him,  who  had 

58 


The  Jewelled   Gate 

laid  them  under  such  infinite  obHgations. 
There  was  no  taint  of  exaggeration,  when  he 
confessed  that  whatever  things  he  might  have 
counted  gain — and  there  were  not  a  few  on 
which  he  might  have  justly  prided  himself — 
these  he  accounted  loss  in  comparison  with  the 
excellency  of  Christ,  for  whom  he  would 
have  been  willing  to  ^sacrifice  ten  thousand 
lives. 

This  selfless  devotion  for  others  has  been 
characteristic  of  the  followers  of  Christ  and 
His  Apostles.  It  is  the  one  dominant  note  of 
the  Christian  religion.  Too  often  Christianity 
has  been  dwarfed  into  a  system  of  morals  on 
the  one  hand,  or  of  the  escape  from  justly- 
incurred  penalty  on  the  other ;  its  professors 
have  built  its  shining  materials  on  the  rubble 
and  sand  of  selfishness.  What  wonder  that 
they  have  done  irreparable  damage  to  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Gospel,  the  essential  chord  of 
whose  music  was  struck  by  the  Master,  when 
He  said  :  '*  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that 
ye  are  My  disciples,  when  ye  have  love." 

All  through  the  centuries  there  have  been 
great  lovers  of  men.  Some  have  been  known  as 
saints,  but  there  have  been  multitudes  who 
were  never  canonized  or  even  recognised.  In 
many  obscure  and  humble  breasts  this  flame 
has    burnt,    which    the    Divine    Prometheus 

59 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

brought   from   Heaven   in   the   reed   of   His 
humanity. 

In  his  ''  History  of  Port  Royal,"  Sainte- 
Beuve  says  :  ''  Penetrate  a  little  beneath  the 
diversity  of  circumstances,  and  it  becomes 
evident  that  in  Christians  of  different  epochs 
there  is  a  single  fundamental  and  identical 
spirit  of  piety  and  love  ;  an  inner  state,  which, 
before  all  things,  is  one  of  love,  humility,  of  an 
infinite  confidence  in  God,  and  of  severity  for 
one's  self,  accompanied  with  tenderness  for 
others.  The  fruits,  peculiar  to  this  condition 
of  soul,  have  the  same  savour  in  all,  under 
distant  suns,  and  in  different  surroundings,  in 
St.  Teresa  of  Avila,  just  as  in  any  Moravian 
brother  at  Herrnhut.'* 

Let  us  take  two  widely  different  examples. 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi  was  a  great  lover  of  men. 
In  few  has  the  flame  of  Divine  love  burnt  more 
clearly  and  hotly  than  in  him.  The  brilliant 
cavalier  renounced  his  property,  and  stepped 
down  from  his  social  position  and  prestige. 
He  went  poorly  clad  in  an  old  tunic,  which  a 
friend  of  other  days  in  pity  gave  him.  He  took 
up  his  abode  among  the  poorest,  and  made 
lepers  his  special  charge.  On  these  he  expended 
the  most  touching  care,  washing  and  wiping 
their  sores,  and  all  the  more  gentle  and  radiant, 
as  their  sores  were  more  repulsive.  The  Bishop 

60 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

of  Assisi  said  :  ''  Your  way  of  living  without 
owning  anything  seems  to  me  very  harsh  and 
difficult/'  ''  My  lord/'  he  replied,  ''  if  we  pos- 
sessed property,  we  should  have  need  of  arms 
for  its  defence,  for  it  is  the  source  of  quarrels, 
of  lawsuits,  and  the  love  of  God  and  one's 
neighbour  usually  finds  many  obstacles  there- 
in, this  is  why  we  do  not  desire  temporal 
goods/' 

It  was  this  consuming  love  for  his  fellows 
that  attracted  to  him  men  of  all  ranks.  In  the 
eyes  of  haughty  nobles  and  jaded  votaries  of 
pleasure,  a  new  light  had  arisen  on  life,  before 
which  the  tremulous  starlight  of  this  world 
paled  ;  and  they  forsook  all  else  to  learn  the 
secret.  Once  more  those  who  sought  for  the 
pearls  of  life,  vainly  shuffling  the  heaps  of 
common  stones  that  lay  on  the  pearl-fishers' 
trays,  realised  that  in  the  ranks  of  the  mendi- 
cants it  was  possible  to  find  a  Pearl  of  such 
great  price  as  to  repay  them  for  the  sacrifice 
of  all  else  to  obtain  it.  And,  when  the  exchange 
was  made,  there  on  the  shores  of  the  infinite 
Southern  Ocean  of  Love,  they  accounted  them- 
selves enriched  for  ever. 

Or,  crossing  the  gulf  of  centuries,  we  recall 
those  touching  words,  which  the  virulent 
calumnies  of  her  enemies  extorted  from  Mrs. 
Butler,  that  true  heroine  and  saint  :   *'  I  have 

6i 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

but  one  little  spare  room  in  my  house.  Into 
that  little  room  I  have  received,  with  my 
husband's  joyful  consent,  one  after  another 
of  these  fallen  sisters.  We  have  given  them  in 
the  hour  of  trouble,  sickness,  and  death  the 
best  that  our  house  could  afford.  In  that  little 
room  I  have  nursed  poor  outcasts  and  have 
loved  them  as  if  they  had  been  my  own  sisters. 
Many  have  died  in  my  arms.  Not  far  from  us 
there  is  a  cemetery,  in  a  sunny  corner  of  which 
stands  a  row  of  humble  graves,  beneath  which 
lie  the  earthly  remains  of  these  our  children, 
now  resting  on  the  bosom  of  their  Saviour. 
Every  one  of  these  departed  in  good  hope  and 
joyfully,  having  found — besides  the  deeper 
peace — the  treasure  of  a  pure  friendship  before 
they  died.  I  have  sought  out  not  only  women, 
but  the  most  miserable  of  men,  poor  sailors — 
Norwegians,  Spaniards,  Greeks — and  have 
laboured  to  convey  to  them,  in  any  language 
possible,  the  sense  of  a  higher  manhood.  I  am 
ashamed  to  be  obliged  to  state  facts  I  would 
far  rather  conceal,  seeing  we  have  only  done 
our  duty  for  the  poor  and  sinful." 

One  remarkable  characteristic  of  this  self- 
giving  is  the  willingness  to  forgo  rights.  It  is 
as  though  one  common  law  ruled  in  lives  dedi- 
cated to  the  cause  of  humanity — No  living 
being  has  the  right  to  all  his  rights,  so  long  as  the 

62 


The  Jewelled   Gate 

interests  of  others  may  he  better  served  by  their 
surrender.  Christ  would  have  been  within  His 
rights,  if  on  His  rejection  at  Nazareth  He  had 
withdrawn  to  where  He  was  before,  or  from 
the  slopes  of  the  Lebanon  had  stepped  across 
the  open  door  of  Paradise.  He  would  have 
been  within  His  rights  had  He  spoken  the  word 
which  had  released  the  twelve  legions  of  angels 
from  their  enforced  restraint.  Paul  would  have 
been  within  his  rights  if  he  had  received  the 
freely  offered  subsidies  and  maintenance  of  the 
infant  churches  which  he  had  called  into 
existence.  Francis  might  have  spent  quiet 
years  on  the  slopes  of  the  Apennines,  and  Mrs. 
Butler  might  have  enjoyed  the  opulence  and 
respect  accorded  to  the  wife  of  a  dignitary  of 
the  Anglican  Church.  But  the  summons  of 
human  misery  and  need  was  irresistible,  and 
rights,  as  well  as  luxuries  and  pleasures,  were 
freely  surrendered  at  the  call. 

In  his  ''  Enoch  Arden,"  Tennyson  has  im- 
mortalised this  trait.  The  returned  husband 
and  father  would  have  been  perfectly  within 
his  rights  had  he  stepped  out  of  the  obscurity 
of  the  little  garden,  and  revealed  his  person 
and  identity.  Phillip's  wife  was  his,  and  his 
the  sweet  dower  of  children,  except  the  babe 
of  that  fatal  but  innocent  second  wedlock. 
But  he  quietly  withdrew  and  went  back  to  the 

63 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

poor  hostel,  where,  with  no  attendant  but  the 
garrulous  housewife,  he  turned  his  face  to- 
wards the  wall,  and  died.  Truly,  the  poet,  how- 
ever, says  of  him  : 

"  He  was  not  all  unhappy.     His  resolve 
Upbore  him,  and  firm  faith,  and  evermore 
Prayer  from  a  living  source  within  the  will, 
And  beating  up  through  all  the  bitter  world, 
Like  fountains  of  sweet  water  in  the  sea, 
Kept  him  a  living  soul." 

The  underlying  conception  of  Christian 
love  is  that  of  Trusteeship.  A  man,  sud- 
denly stricken  with  death,  calls  in  the  friend 
of  his  youth  and  manhood,  and  says  :  *'  The 
end  is  near  ;  I  had  thought  to  live  longer 
and  make  further  provision  for  wife  and 
child,  but  it  is  not  to  be.  This  is  the  amount 
of  my  property,  and  there  are  my  invest- 
ments. I  wish  to  appoint  you  as  my  trustee. 
Do  not  fail  me  in  this  hour.  Deal  with 
mine  as  you  wish  your  own  to  be  dealt  by. 
Make  the  best  of  what  I  have  gathered,  and 
see  to  those  I  leave.'*  Can  a  man  resist  an 
appeal  like  that  ?  Must  not  all  other  con- 
siderations be  submerged  before  this  last 
appeal  ?  And  when  presently  he  comes  into 
possession  of  all,  can  he  use  one  fraction  of 
it  for  himself  ?  No,  assuredly,  he  will  act  to 
his  own  detriment  rather  than  lay  his  hands 

64 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

on  the  smallest  item  of  his  friend's  bequest. 
Even  his  legitimate  personal  expenses  will 
probably  be  absent,  when  he  hands  in  the 
account  of  his  stewardship.  No  effort  will 
have  been  spared  to  increase  the  income  for 
his  wards,  whatever  the  cost  of  time  and 
thought  for  himself. 

This  is  the  clue  to  Christ's  own  life  in  this 
world.  He  recognised  that  whatever  He 
held.  He  held  in  the  interests  of  mankind, 
and  that  He  was  not  at  liberty  to  abstract 
the  smallest  fraction  for  Himself.  This  was 
the  first  point  that  He  established  on  the 
Mount  of  Temptation.  He  had  already  been 
declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power  by 
that  Voice  which  had  spoken  from  heaven 
at  His  baptism,  and  proclaimed  Him  the 
beloved  Son.  Then  the  temptation  arose, 
quite  naturally,  from  the  physical  side  of 
His  nature,  and  when  hard  pressed  with  the 
hunger  of  His  long  fast,  *'  Why  not  use  this 
power  to  turn  these  stones  to  bread."  It 
was  specious  enough.  There  was  no  harm  in 
wanting  or  eating  bread.  The  Heavenly 
Father,  in  accepting  His  self-emptying,  would 
surely  not  begrudge  His  self-sustenance  in 
the  conditions  of  His  mortal  career.  But  it 
could  not  be.  Human  need  was  too  dire 
and  clamant  for  Him  to  think  of   deducting 

F  65 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

even  this  ounce-weight  of  power  from  the 
deposit  at  His  disposal  on  man's  behalf, 
though  that  deposit  were  infinite  and 
divine. 

And  He  was  consistent  with  this  resolve 
in  all  the  subsequent  incidents  of  His 
ministry.  When  ten  thousand  hungry  people 
gathered  around  His  table,  spread  in  the 
lonely  hills,  He  fed  them  with  fish  and  bread, 
so  that  each  was  filled,  and  there  was  a  large 
surplusage  left  over  ;  but  in  the  early  morn- 
ing He  searched  a  fig  tree  for  His  breakfast, 
which  apparently  He  had  no  other  means 
of  procuring.  How  could  it  be  otherwise, 
whilst  Judas  held  the  bag  ! 

He  left  the  mountain  at  the  dawn,  tearing 
Himself  from  fellowship  with  His  Father,  and 
traversed  the  stormy  waves,  overpowering 
the  laws  of  Nature  for  the  purpose  of  calm- 
ing the  fears  of  His  distressed  and  affrighted 
followers  ;  but  when  challenged  to  cast  Him- 
self down  the  steeps  of  air,  He  refused, 
because,  whilst  generous  to  extravagance 
for  others.  He  was,  so  to  speak,  parsimonious 
for  Himself. 

He  was  keen  to  take  to  Paradise  a  peni- 
tent malefactor,  with  a  spoilt  record  and 
misspent  life  behind  him  ;  but  he  would  not 
go  there  for  even  a  brief  breathing  space, 

66 


The  Jewelled   Gate 

though  the  doors   stood  wide  open  through 
which  Moses  and  Ehjah  had  come. 

On  the  occasion  of  His  arrest  He  had 
no  hesitation  in  stretching  out  His  hand  to 
heal  a  wounded  ear,  but  would  not  use 
aught  of  His  power  to  help  Himself,  and 
meekly  asked  the  ruffian  soldiers  who  were 
tightly  binding  His  hands,  to  permit  Him  to 
extend  one  of  them  far  enough  to  touch  the 
wound.  ''  Suffer  ye  thus  far,  and  He  touched 
the  ear  and  healed  it.'* 

So  eager  was  His  devotion  to  men  that, 
if  we  may  put  it  so.  He  took  no  percentage, 
however  small,  of  the  unsearchable  riches 
which  He  brought  to  their  help.  Though  He 
knew  that  His  body  must  be  raised  again, 
for  the  great  purposes  of  redemption.  He 
took  no  kind  of  thought  for  its  preservation 
and  interment.  His  all-absorbing  interest 
was  for  others.  He  saved  others,  but  He 
would  not  save  Himself,  and  He  could  not 
do  both.  He  literally  renounced  everything 
that  others  might  have  everything  ;  and  it  is 
because  of  the  immense  wealth  which, 
through  His  absolute  self-surrender  He  has 
been  able  to  distribute,  that  He  has  stood 
forth  among  all  lovers  of  our  race  as  easily 
Prince  and  Chief.  He  lost  Himself ;  but, 
in  His  own  words,  He  found  His  life.     There- 

67 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

fore  He  is  most  blessed  for  ever,  and  anointed 
with  the  oil  of  joy  above  His  fellows. 

The  life  which  reproduces  the  Love  of 
which  we  are  speaking  is  the  truly  happy 
one.  Compared  with  it,  the  joys  of  the 
giddy  round  of  amusements,  patronised  by 
the  jaded  crowds  of  fashion,  are  as  the 
flash  of  the  meteor  across  the  arch  of  night 
as  compared  with  the  steady  shining  of  the 
sun.  Go  through  the  world,  discovering  and 
advertising  the  best  in  others,  wiping  tears 
from  off  all  faces,  pouring  the  oil  of  sym- 
pathy into  the  open  wounds  of  belaboured 
and  plundered  travellers,  ministering  to  suf- 
fering, soothing  alarm,  heartening  the  fear- 
ful ;  bearing,  believing,  and  hoping  all 
things  ;  and  never  failing  any  in  the  hour 
when  they  turn  for  sympathy  and  help  in 
their  distress,  and  you  will  drink  of  the 
most  exquisite  joys  that  are  known  by 
mortals.  This  is  the  elixir  of  life.  Beneath 
its  spell  our  eyes  are  opened  to  behold  the 
primal  beauty  of  creation.  Like  the  beloved 
Apostle,  you  will  see  jewels  underpinning 
the  City  of  God,  hear  voices  sweeter  than  the 
chime  of  the  waves  on  the  beach,  and  find 
doors  opening  into  Heaven,  giving  glimpses 
of  the  sapphire  Throne.  **  It  is  more  blessed 
to  give/*  said  the  Master,  *'  than  to  receive." 

68 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

''  Give,  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you  :  good 
measure,  pressed  down,  shaken  together,  and 
running  over,  shall  man  give  into  your 
bosom.  For  with  the  same  measure  that  ye 
mete  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again." 

***** 

It  may  seem  that  an  impossible  ideal  has 
been  set  up,   to  which  only  those  who  are 
exceptionally  gifted  can  aspire.     But  though 
the  upper  summits,  where  the  edelweiss  and 
gentian    grow,    may    seem    inaccessible,    the 
lower    slopes    may    be    trodden,    where    the 
hamlets   nestle   in  the   dimples   of   the  hi)ls 
and  the  scent  of  the  hayfield  bespeaks  the 
near  presence  of  the  home  of  man.     Let  us 
begin  with  these.     It  may  be  that  we  shall 
be  allured  from  level  to  level,  until,  almost 
unconsciously,  we  attain  to  the  upper  steps 
in  the  giant  staircase  of  aspiration  and  ascent. 
One  of   the  main   points   that   we   must 
make  with  ourselves,  if  we  would  attain  to 
a  rightly-ordered  and  pure  love,  is  to  forgo 
those    proclivities    and    affinities    which    en- 
deavour to  monopolise  us.     It  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  like  people  who  are  naturally  attrac- 
tive and  charming  ;    but  there  is  no  special 
virtue  in  this,  and  we  cannot  preen  ourselves 
and    congratulate    ourselves    as    having     a 

69 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

specially  loving  and  lovable  disposition  if  we 
confine  ourselves  to  these.  "  If  ye  love  them 
that  love  you,  what  reward  have  ye  ?  Do 
not  even  the  Publicans  the  same  ?  And  if 
ye  salute  your  brethren  only,  what  do  ye 
more  than  others  ?  Do  not  even  the  Gentiles 
the  same  ?  Ye  therefore  shall  be  perfect, 
even  as  your  Heavenly  Father  is  perfect." 
It  was  a  Master  in  the  art  of  love  who  spoke 
thus  ! 

A  perfect  love  is  that  which  is  irrespec- 
tive of  congenial  and  attractive  personali- 
ties, which  is  elicited  by  the  appeal  of  need, 
whether  issuing  from  peasant  or  prince, 
enemy  or  friend,  and  which  is  not  content 
with  bearing  with  untoward  and  awkward 
people,  but  goes  out  of  its  way  to  redeem 
them  from  their  untowardnesses  and  awk- 
wardnesses, their  spurs  and  angles.  We  are 
summoned,  if  we  would  love  with  a  divine 
love,  to  give  ourselves  for  those  we  do  not 
like,  and  minister  to  those  who  naturally 
repel  us. 

We  are  bidden  to  love  those  who  hate  us, 
to  do  them  good,  to  be  kind  to  the  unthankful 
and  evil,  to  be  like  our  Heavenly  Father, 
whose  sunshine  falls  on  the  evil  and  the 
good,  and  His  rain  on  the  just  and  the  un- 
just.    The  life  that  is  always  giving,  always 

70 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

pouring  forth  its  stores,  always  forgiving,  for- 
bearing, and  uplifting — such  is  the  life  to 
which  we  are  called,  if  we  would  make  the 
most  and  best  of  these  few  years  of  sojourn 
in  a  world  of  unutterable  need. 

It  seems  as  though,  in  the  Divine  appor- 
tionment of  our  lot,  people  are  put  into  our 
lives,  who  reveal  us  to  ourselves  and  show 
how  far  short  we  have  come  of  the  Divine 
ideal  that  we  have  been  studying ;  they  are 
about  the  last  persons  whom  we  would 
naturally  have  chosen.  Their  temperaments, 
interests,  and  views  are  at  right  angles  to 
our  own.  They  are  like  those  bare  and  naked 
poles,  characteristic  of  Kent,  up  which  the 
hop  plant  climbs  to  spread  its  waving  arms 
in  the  glorious  sunlight.  But  their  presence 
in  our  homes  and  family  circles  is  intended 
to  rebuke  our  pretensions  to  love,  and  teach 
us  how  to  set  about  acquiring  it  in  good 
earnest. 

Probably,  under  such  circumstances,  the 
true  way  to  act  is  to  reverse  the  order  of  pro- 
cedure as  stated  in  the  Gospels.  We  are  there 
bidden  to  love  with  all  our  heart  and  soul 
and  mind  and  strength.  Now,  this  may  be  the 
Divine  order,  but  it  is  not  the  order  which  is 
easiest  to  follow.  It  is  impossible  to  command 
the  heart :   it  is  too  wayward,  and  too  wilful. 

71 


Life   and  the  Way  Through 

It  is  only  slightly  less  dii!icult  to  command  the 
soul,  because  we  have  been  accustomed  to 
leave  it  to  its  vagrant  and  wayward  choices. 
The  mind,  if  it  stands  for  the  thinking  faculty, 
unless  we  have  trained  ourselves  to  habits  of 
concentration,  is  not  wont  to  obey  control.  If, 
therefore,  by  any  of  these  faculties  we  are  to 
begin  to  love  the  unlovely,  we  may  be  greatly 
puzzled  and  set  back.  But  we  may  find  refuge 
in  the  word  ''  strengthy  Here,  at  least,  is  a 
department  of  our  nature,  where  the  will  can 
operate.  And  if  we  begin  by  loving  people  with 
our  strength,  doing  things  for  them  by  the  stern 
compulsion  of  our  will,  we  shall  find  ourselves 
passing  through  the  other  phases,  and  loving 
with  the  mind,  the  soul,  and  the  heart. 

I  knew  an  incident  of  this  kind.  A  poor 
governess,  cramped  with  rheumatism,  came 
into  the  home  of  relatives — a  newly-married 
man  and  wife — as  her  only  port  in  the  storm, 
unless  the  workhouse.  The  husband  fought 
hard  with  himself  for  long  months,  affecting 
to  ignore  her  presence  in  the  attic  bedroom. 
Finally,  however,  his  better  nature  triumphed, 
and  he  resolved  that  since  he  could  love  her 
by  no  other  part  of  his  nature,  he  would,  at 
least,  do  so  with  his  strength.  He,  therefore, 
offered  to  carry  her  down  in  his  strong  arms 
to  share  the  midday  meal  with  the  family,  and 

72 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

carried  her  back.  The  fact  of  making  this  effort 
for  her  comfort  awakened  new  chords  of  sym- 
pathy. He  began  to  think  more  kindly  of  her, 
of  her  need  and  lonehness — it  was  the  love  of 
his  mind.  Next,  he  offered  to  read  poetry  to 
her,  and  discovered  that  their  ideals  were 
similar,  and  he  loved  her  with  his  soul.  And 
when  she  died  soon  after,  and  his  wife  and  he 
stood  beside  the  open  grave,  they  discovered 
that  they  had  come  to  love  her  with  the  heart. 
What  had  begun  as  hard  duty  resulted  in  pure 
affection. 


Do  these  seem  to  be  counsels  of  perfection  ? 
Say  not  so.  Remember  that  Divine  Love  is 
the  atmosphere  of  the  eternal  world  in  which 
our  spirits  rear  themselves,  or  bathe  as  the 
mountains  bathe  their  feet  in  blue  Lucerne. 
It  is  not  possible  to  do  these  things  that  we 
have  been  indicating  with  out  poor  fickle  re- 
sources, but  we  can  place  our  five  barley  loaves 
and  two  small  fish  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty 
Christ.  We  can  yield  ourselves  to  Him  as  the 
vehicles  through  which  He  can  shed  abroad 
His  love  in  the  world.  There  is  a  quality  in  His 
love  which  is  not  negative  only,  but  positive, 
which  combines  the  vigour  and  energy  of  the 
man  with  the  tenderness  of  woman,  and  the 

73 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

sweetness  of  the  little  child.  It  is  not  what 
you  can  be,  but  what  He  can  be  in  you  ;  not 
what  you  can  do,  but  what  He  can  do  by  you  ; 
not  what  you  feel,  but  what  His  emotions, 
rising  up  in  you,  amount  to.  You  are  hope- 
lessly bankrupt,  but  you  are  rich.  In  the 
earthen  vessel  of  your  heart,  you  carry  much 
heavenly  treasure,  that  the  exceeding  great- 
ness of  your  love  may  be  of  God,  and  not  of  you ! 
Long  years  ago,  I  remember  two  ladies 
coming  to  me — sisters — whose  mother  had 
recently  died,  and  a  dispute  had  arisen  between 
them  and  their  father  about  her  property.  So 
far  as  I  remember,  he  was  monopolising  what 
had  been  left  in  part  to  them.  In  consequence, 
a  breach  had  occurred,  which  had  separated 
them,  though  circumstances  compelled  them 
to  live  together  in  a  lone  part  of  the  country. 
These  sisters  had  passed  through  an  experience 
of  Divine  illumination  granted  to  few,  but  they 
dreaded  to  return  home,  because  of  the  inevit- 
able ice-barrier  which  had  grown  up  between 
them  and  their  only  surviving  parent.  They 
sought  help,  and  there  was  only  one  thing  to 
say  :  ''  You  must  love  him,  and  to  do  so  you 
must  begin  at  once  to  express  your  love.  On 
arrival  at  home,  go  straight  to  his  room,  and 
without  a  word  of  reference  to  the  past,  salute 
him  with  a  daughter's  kiss."    They  said  that 

74 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

it  was  impossible.  My  reply  was  :  ''  Offer  your 
lips  to  the  love  of  God,  and  let  it  flow  through 
them/'  I  heard  after  from  them,  that  the  effect 
was  magical.  The  father  broke  down,  and 
asked  their  forgiveness.  It  was  as  when  one 
day  of  early  summer  changes  the  whole  aspect 
of  Nature. 

"  If,'*  says  Rev.  Robert  Law,*  ''  we  have 
the  Love  that  is  not  merely  liking  for  the  like- 
able, admiration  for  the  admirable,  gratitude 
to  the  generous — Love  whose  will  to  bless  men 
is  undeterred  by  demerit  or  unattractiveness, 
that  bears  another's  burden,  dries  another's 
tears,  forgives  injuries,  overcomes  evil  with 
good — Love  which  is  prompt  to  help  those 
who  need  our  help  (hoping  for  nothing  again), 
instead  of  those  who  need  it  not  (hoping  for 
much  in  return) — then  the  Love  that  mani- 
fests itself  in  us  is  that  Divine  kind  of  love 
which  is  most  worthy  of  the  name.  It  is 
God  Himself  within  us,  acting  out  His  Life 
in  ours.  It  is  His  Love  that  is  fulfilled  in 
us."  It  is  this  that  enables  the  Apostle  to 
use  the  word  ought :  ''  We  ought  to  love  one 
another."  It  would  be  inadmissible  to  use 
the  ought  of  necessary  duty,  unless  we  were 
able  to  draw  from  the  nature  of  God  love 
for  love,  as    grace  for  grace. 

*  "  The  Tests  of  Life."     T.  and  T.  Clark. 
75 


Life   and  the  Way  Through 

There  is  nothing  for  which  this  world  of 
ours  is  more  thirsty  than  for  Love  hke  this. 
All  the  legislation  of  Parliaments  and  the  edicts 
of  rulers  are  never  going  to  change  the  face  of 
Society.  You  may  thrust  down  one  set  of 
rulers  and  establish  another  in  their  place  ; 
you  may  alter  the  tenure  of  land,  and  insist  on 
the  distribution  of  wealth.  But  the  great  stone 
face  cut  into  the  rock  is  not  materially  altered 
by  your  prescriptions.  The  heart  of  man  is  too 
subtle  for  you.  The  new  rulers  will  be  as  stony- 
hearted as  the  old.  A  godless  democracy  will 
not  be  more  easy  to  cope  with  than  a  godless 
aristocracy.  You  may  pound  ice  with  a  pestle 
and  mortar,  but  it  is  still  ice  ;  the  warm 
sunshine  is  necessary  to  melt  the  ice-crystals 
to  the  common  element  of  water.  Not  that 
legislation  and  political  movements  are  to 
be  tabooed,  because  they  register  the  high- 
water  marks  of  Christian  civilisation ;  but 
that  they  cannot  be  trusted  to  bring  about 
that  new  heaven  and  earth  for  which  the 
whole  creation  waits. 

One  of  the  first  conditions  of  this  new 
universe  is  in  the  drawing  together  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  ;  and  here  one  cannot  for- 
bear quoting  the  substance  of  a  notable  article 
which  appeared  lately  in  the  public  Press, 
which  shows  how  the  spirit  of  love  may  mani- 

76 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

fest  itself  among  men  of  differing  religious 
views: — * 

The  greatest  difficulty  which  has  hitherto  (0  Q 
confronted  the  missionary  in  Eastern  Africa omZX/£ 
is  the  riven  and  divided  state  of  Christendom. 
Mohammedanism  presents  to  heathenism  a 
united  front,  whilst  Christianity  is  broken  into 
factions.  Behind  Islam  is  the  driving  force  of 
an  intense  realisation  of  one  fact :  *'  There  is 
no  God  but  Allah,  and  Mohammed  is  his 
prophet  '*  ;  the  power  behind  Christianity 
seems  often  to  be  only  the  desire  of  one  faction 
to  supplant  another.  The  faith  of  the  Moslem 
becomes  forged  into  steel  on  the  anvil  of 
fanaticism  ;  that  of  the  Christian  becomes  soft 
as  lead  in  the  cooling  winds  of  controversy. 
The  amazing  thing  which  indeed  proves  the 
inexhaustible  vitality  of  Christianity  is  that 
it  still  sweeps  masses  of  heathen  into  its  fold. 
If  it  were  united  against  heathenism  and 
Islam,  its  day  of  final  victory  would  speedily 
dawn. 

Until  lately,  Christianity  in  East  Africa 
has  had  neither  a  common  policy  nor  a  com- 
mon Gospel.  But  in  this,  that  part  of  the 
mission  field  is  not  remarkable.  More  or  less, 
it  is  the  same  everywhere,  and  instead  of  the 
unity  of  love  there  are  the  rivalry  and  collision 

*  The  Scotsman,  August  9th,  191 3. 
77 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

of  many  sects.  But  three  years  ago,  in  East 
Africa,  a  scheme  was  projected  by  Dr.  Henry 
Scott,  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  Mission, 
whose  death  British  East  Africa  still  mourns, 
which,  under  the  wise  superintendence  of 
Bishop  Willis,  of  Uganda,  has  lately  resulted 
in  the  federation  of  all  the  various  missions 
on  the  field. 

The  basis  of  this  federation,  which  now 
unites  Anglicans,  Presbyterians,  Methodists, 
and  others,  is  a  common  acceptance  of  certain 
basic  facts  and  truths  of  the  Gospel ;  a  recog- 
nition of  a  common  membership  between  the 
churches  of  the  Federation  ;  a  regular  admin- 
istration of  the  two  sacraments  by  outward 
signs ;  and  a  common  form  of  Church  organisa- 
tion which  is  a  blend  of  Episcopacy  and  Pres- 
byterianism.  Each  society  is  autonomous 
within  its  own  sphere,  but  the  organisation  of 
the  future  native  Church  is  to  be  developed 
along  these  lines.  The  federated  missions  are 
to  respect  each  other's  spheres,  to  observe  a 
common  Church  discipline,  to  have  a  pre- 
scribed course  of  study  for  the  native  ministry, 
and  each  minister  shall  be  set  apart  by  lawful 
authority  and  by  the  laying  on  of  hands. 
'*  All  recognised  as  ministers  in  their  own 
churches  shall  be  welcomed  as  visitors  to 
preach  in  other  federated  churches." 

78 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

''  On  the  evening  of  that  day,  June  27th,  on 
which  the  conference  passed  this  scheme  of 
federation,  a  service  of  Holy  Communion  was 
held  in  the  Scottish  Church  at  Kikuyu.  Bishop 
Peel  administered  the  Sacrament ;  a  minister 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  preached  the  sermon, 
and  all  the  mission  delegates  received  the  Holy 
Communion  from  the  Bishop's  hands.  There 
was  no  question  of  any  difference  between 
them.  All  the  things  that  ever  separated 
Christians  were  submerged  by  the  rising  tide 
of  love  and  unity  which  had  upborne  them  to 
that  hour.  It  was  a  day  of  which  the  impulse 
will  be  felt  throughout  every  mission  field  in 
the  world.  The  missionaries  of  British  East 
Africa  and  Uganda  have  given  the  Christian 
world  an  object-lesson  in  the  spirit  of  unity. 
They  have  shown  how  it  is  possible  for 
Christians  to  be  '  one  that  the  world  may 
believe.'  " 

If  this  is  possible  at  Uganda,  it  is  possible 
anywhere  and  everywhere.  Let  us  together 
ask  the  Father,  who  is  Himself  Love,  that  He 
would  shed  abroad  His  love  through  the  hearts 
of  His  children,  that  we  may  love  in  the  con- 
centric circles  of  our  life — our  home,  our  social 
and  business  relations,  and  our  churches — that 
the  coming  of  that  day  may  be  hastened  when 
Love  will  be  enthroned  in  all  hearts,  kingdoms, 

79 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

and  countries,  and  the  age  of  gold  will  come 
again  to  earth. 

"  What  is  the  beginning  ? — ^Love. 
What  the  course  ? — Love  still. 
What  the  goal  ? 

The  goal  is  Love  on  happy  hill. 
Is  there  nothing,  then,  but  Love  ? 

Search  or  sky  or  earth, 
There  is  nothing,  out  of  Love, 

Hath  perpetual  worth. 
All  things  flag,  but  only  Love  ; 

All  things  fail  or  flee  ; 
There  is  nothing  left  but  Love, 

Worthy  you  or  me  ?  " 


80 


THE   JEWELLED    GATE    [Continued), 
(3)  HOPE 

Faith  and  Love  were  brother  and  sister  ; 
and  it  is  said  that,  dwelHng  in  a  newly  opened 
country,  they  sallied  forth  each  morning  to 
clear  the  forest-lands,  felling  the  big  trees, 
extracting  their  roots,  and  preparing  the 
ground  for  the  plough  ;  but  the  work  was 
arduous  and  slow.  Sometimes,  under  the 
sweltering  midday  sun,  their  hearts  would 
faint.  Progress  seemed  so  tedious,  the  tangled 
undergrowth  so  thick.  At  times  they  were  on 
the  point  of  abandoning  their  toils  and  retir- 
ing from  an  endeavour  which  threatened  to 
master  them.  At  such  times  their  younger 
sister,  Hope,  lyre  in  hand,  would  come,  and, 
sitting  beside  them,  sing  of  the  great  glory  for 
which  they  were  preparing.  She  peopled  those 
territories  with  mighty  cities  and  flourishing 
towns,  occupied  with  the  activities  and  domes- 
ticities of  men.  Factories  and  homes  filled 
her  vision.  The  laughter  of  happy  children, 
and  the  chime  of  church  bells.  Her  favourite 
theme  was   attuned  to  that   ancient   chord, 

G  8i 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

struck  from  the  Harp  of  Prophecy  by  the 
finger  of  the  God  of  Hope  :  ''  The  wilderness 
and  the  sohtary  place  shall  be  glad  for  them ; 
and  the  desert  shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as 
the  rose.  It  shall  blossom  abundantly,  and 
rejoice  even  with  joy  and  singing.'' 

Those  of  us  who  are  continually  immersed 
in  the  great  currents  and  tides  of  human  life 
need  to  refresh  ourselves  by  looking  away  to 
these  immortal  frescoes  on  the  walls  of  the 
corridors  of  Hope's  dwelling-place.  We  must 
project  ourselves  into  that  great  future,  and 
encourage  ourselves  with  that  blessed  Hope, 
When  the  present  state  of  things  will  be  ended, 
when  the  problem  of  evil  will  be  solved,  and 
the  divine  travail  satisfied. 

But  what  is  true  for  the  race  is  true  of 
the  individual.  We  may  speak  in  the  same 
terms  of  the  microcosm  of  our  personal  exist- 
ence as  of  the  macrocosm  of  humanity.  We 
need  not,  therefore,  hesitate  to  say  with  the 
poet : 

"  Build  thee  more  stately  mansions,  O  my  soul, 
While  the  swift  seasons  roll. 
Leave  thy  low-vaulted  past. 
Let  each  new  mansion,  nobler  than  the  last, 
Shut  out  from  heaven  with  dome  more  vast ; 

Till  thou  at  length  art  free. 
Leaving  thine  outgrown  shell  by  life's  unresting  sea." 

Oliver  Wendell   Holmes. 

82 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

In  the  development  of  our  life  there  are 
four  stages.  First,  the  putting  forth  of  phy- 
sical strength  ;  then,  the  awakening  to  the 
appeal  of  sensuous  emotion  ;  then,  the  grow- 
ing splendour  of  the  intellect ;  and  finally, 
the  reign  of  the  spiritual  faculty,  by  which 
the  whole  being  is  dominated  from  above. 
The  precise  order  in  which  these  four  planes 
are  reached  may  vary  in  different  indivi- 
duals ;  but  that  there  are  these  four,  and 
that  they  succeed  each  other,  as  strata,  in 
this  order,  will  be  generally  acknowledged. 

Similarly  with  mankind.  The  earliest 
monarchies  were  founded  on  physical  force. 
Great  empires,  compared  by  Daniel  to  wild 
beasts,  fought  for  the  mastery  of  the  world, 
came  up  out  of  the  waters  of  the  teeming 
ocean  of  life,  trampled  for  a  little  while  the 
sands,  and  passed  from  view.  Next  came 
the  rule  of  fleshly  appetite,  and  the  mighty 
religious  systems  of  paganism  pampered 
sensual  desire.  Some  of  these  survive  to- 
day, such  as  Hinduism.  Of  others,  we  have 
traces  among  the  recently  exhumed  relics  of 
great  nations  that  have  long  since  passed 
away  ;  and  what  we  know  is  confirmed  by 
the  allusions  of  the  more  ancient  records  of 
Scripture,  which  describe  the  lands  of  the 
Orient  as  spueing  out  their  inhabitants  be- 

83 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

cause  of  the  vileness  of  their  abominable 
sensuaUty. 

Then  came  the  rule  of  the  Intellect. 
Greece,  with  her  wisdom,  captivated  and  led 
the  world.  To  Athens  all  eyes  were  turned  ; 
to  the  voice  of  her  great  teachers  all  men 
listened.  And  even  after  the  incursions  of 
barbarians  had  threatened  to  extinguish  her 
illuminating  genius,  it  was  in  the  Renaissance 
of  Greek  learning  that  Europe  and  civilisa- 
tion were  quickened  from  the  torpor  of  the 
Middle  Ages. 

That  reign  is  not  yet  finished,  as  the 
modern  investigations  and  discoveries  of 
science  suggest ;  but  already  another  empire 
is  beginning  to  manifest  itself,  as  when  the 
light  of  a  summer  morning  steals  in  on  a 
brilliantly  lighted  banqueting-hall.  The  veil 
of  the  spirit- world  thins  every  hour.  The  light 
behind  is  becoming  more  intense.  It  cannot 
be  long  before  the  full  result  of  Christ's 
passage  as  man  into  the  spiritual  world  will 
bring  about  the  spiritualising  of  mankind. 

The  law  for  the  individual  and  the  race 
is  therefore  ever  Forward.  We  must  leave 
behind  our  childish  things,  our  mistakes,  our 
failures,  our  sins.  To  look  back  on  them 
will  be  to  court  petrifaction,  as  when  Lot's 
wife  looked  back  on  Sodom.     The  beacon- 

84 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

cloud  only  once  removed  to  the  rear  of  the 
host,  to  intercept  the  attack  of  the  foe.  Its 
position  was  invariably  at  the  head  of  the 
march.  Leave  the  dead  past  to  bury  its 
dead.  ''  As  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the 
earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image  of  the 
heavenly.  Howbeit  that  was  not  first  which 
is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  natural ;  and 
afterward  that  which  is  spiritual.  There  is 
a  natural  body,  and  there  is  a  spiritual  body." 
And  so  it  is  written  :  '*  The  first  man  Adam 
was  made  a  living  soul ;  the  last  Adam 
became  a  life-giving  spirit." 

The  old  legend  tells  that  as  Eve  was 
leaving  Eden  she  plucked  a  flower  to  carry 
with  her  as  a  memorial  of  its  untainted 
beauty  ;  but  it  withered  as  she  passed  the 
gate.  Yet  surely  those  other  flowers  which 
were  cultured  by  her  husband's  care  were 
more  beautiful  in  her  eyes  1  And  was  not 
the  face  of  her  first-born  more  bewitching 
than  any  flower  culled  from  the  soil  of  Para- 
dise ?  Always  dare  to  believe  that  better 
things  are  awaiting  you  and  your  race  than 
eye  has  seen  or  heart  conceived.  The  earth, 
like  an  ocean-going  steamer,  is  being  steered 
by  a  Divine  hand  to  a  port  which  may  well 
be  called  '*  The  Fair  Havens."  It  is  impos- 
sible that  the  great  drama  of  human  history 

85 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

can  end  in  disappointment  and  defeat.  The 
Love  of  God  has  expended  too  much  on  us 
to  abandon  the  work  to  which  He  has  put 
His  hand.  He  cannot  allow  His  deep  in- 
vestment of  tears  and  blood  to  be  wasted. 
Out  of  the  chaos  of  the  old  world  the  brood- 
ing Spirit  brought  order  and  beauty,  till, 
as  He  viewed  His  handiwork,  the  Almighty 
pronounced  that  it  was  very  good.  Less 
than  that  cannot  be  expected,  either  in  the 
new  creation  of  the  soul  or  the  coming  revela- 
tion of  the  new  Heavens  and  Earth.  This 
hope  we  have  as  an  anchor  of  the  soul,  sure 
and  stedfast.  It  keeps  our  soul  from  drift- 
ing with  the  swing  of  the  tide,  because  it 
enters  within  the  veil.  It  cannot  be  ashamed 
because  God's  love  is  shed  abroad  in  our 
hearts. 

Mr.  Simpson,  of  Edinburgh,  used  to  tell 
the  story  of  an  Irish  cabin  in  which  a  cripple 
child  lay  on  a  mattress  with  no  light  except 
that  which  came  through  the  open  doorway. 
Her  companions  were  pigs  and  fowls ;  her 
father  a  drunkard.  A  friendly  neighbour 
asked  the  father  if  he  did  not  think  that  it 
would  be  a  great  improvement  to  strike  out 
a  window,  that  the  child  might  look  out 
as  it  lay.  The  window  was  made,  but  it 
only  looked  out  on  a  cabbage  garden.     The 

86 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

neighbour  came  in  to  see  if  the  work  were 
done,   and  exclaimed  in  amazement   at  the 
window  not  having  been  placed  on  the  other 
side  of  the  house,  where  she  could  see  the 
moving    glory    of    the    outspread    sea.     This 
also  was  done.     But  on  yet  another  day  the 
woman  returned,  because  her  heart  yearned 
for  the  poor  little  child,  and  protested  that 
the  work  would  never  be  complete  until,  over 
the  child's  bed,  the  father  had  made  a  wm- 
dow  in  the  roof,  so  that  she  might  see  the 
arch  of  the  sky,  and  at  night  the  moon  and 
stars.     This  also  was  done.     It  is  not  enough 
to   have   the   window    of    Patience   for    our 
cabbage  gardens,  or  Experience  for  our  seas  ; 
we  need  an  outlook  on  those  abidmg  reah- 
ties  which  already  are  in  the  purpose  of  God 
and  shall  be  one  day  realised  for  evermore  m 
the  actual  experience  of  mankind. 

''  Hast  thou  hope  ?  '^  they  asked  of  John 
Knox  when  he  was  dying.  He  spoke  nothmg, 
but  raised  his  finger,  and  pointed  upward,  and 

so  died. 

Hope  thou  in  God,  for  thou  shaft  yet 
praise  Him.  All  that  we  have  ever  hoped 
for  will  one  day  become  ours,  not  m  the 
coarser  forms  in  which  we  have  conceived, 
but  in  fair  and  ethereal  shapes.  Our  hopes 
speak  with  prophetic  voices  of  the  good  time 

S7 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

coming,  and  they  shall  not  be  found  liars. 
We  shall  possess  our  possessions.  We  shall 
inherit  the  land.  We  shall  be  satisfied.  Not 
along  the  way  that  we  expected,  nor  in  the 
precise  form  we  anticipated,  but  as  God  hath 
planned.  The  outward  may  perish,  but 
the  inward  will  root  itself  and  grow.  The 
things  that  are  capable  of  being  shaken  will 
remove,  but  those  which  cannot  be  shaken 
will  be  imperishably  ours. 

*'  No  star  is  ever  lost  we  once  have  seen; 
We  always  may  be  what  we  might  have  been. 
Since  Good,  though  only  thought,  has  life  and  breath, 
God's  hfe — can  always  be  redeemed  from  death ; 
And  evil,  in  its  nature,  is  decay, 
And  any  hour  can  blot  it  all  away ; 
The  hopes  that  lost  in  some  far-distance  seem, 
May  be  the  truer  hfe,  and  this  the  dream." 

— ^A.  A.  Procter; 

We  cannot  do  better,  as  we  close  these 
paragraphs  on  Hope,  than  recall  those  true 
words  of  a  great  preacher,*  which  sum  up 
precisely  what  we  have  been  endeavouring 
to  say  :  "  Progress  is  the  law  of  the  world  ;  it 
is  the  law  which  ought  to  rule  our  lives.  See 
that  you  have  an  active  part  in  the  great 
evolution  of  the  race.  What  matters,  after 
all,    the    catastrophes,    the    convulsions    of 

♦  Rev.  Stopford  Brooke. 
88 


The  Jewelled  Gate 

heart  and  intellect  which  3^ou  must  suffer, 
the  shattered  sail,  the  midnight  watch  in  the 
hurricane,  the  loneliness  of  mid-ocean  ?  It 
is  life  at  least  ;  it  is  more,  it  is  moving  with 
the  movement  of  the  world,  and  the  world 
is  moving  under  the  direction  of  Christ." 

Yes,  Christ  is  with  us.  We  are  all  to 
come  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
perfect  manhood,  to  the  measure  of  the  stan- 
dard of  the  fullness  of  Christ.  A  thousand 
years  with  Him  is  as  a  watch  in  the  night. 
To  us  the  pace  is  slow,  but  it  is  not  really 
so.  *'  Yet  once,  it  is  a  little  while,  and  I 
will  shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and 
the  sea,  and  the  dry  land  ;  and  I  will  shake 
all  nations,  and  the  desire  of  all  nations  shall 
come."  Be  of  good  cheer,  for  there  shall  be 
a  fulfilment  unto  you  of  all  things  spoken 
by  the  Lord  ! 


89 


VI 

SOME   EXPERIENCES   ON   THE   WAY 

The  way  often  lies  for  miles  over  the  dull 
and  irksome  flats  of  the  commonplace.  Each 
dawn  summons  us  to  the  same  uninteresting 
and  uninviting  tasks.  *'  The  common  round 
and  daily  task  '*  are  easier  to  sing  about  than 
practise.  We  feel  that  it  is  perfectly  legitimate 
to  complain  of  the  dull,  slow  life  we  are  forced 
to  lead,  the  lowliness  of  our  position,  the 
drudgery  of  our  toil.  Surely  we  were  made  for 
something  better  than  to  drive  the  pen  over 
reams  of  paper,  to  type  out  business  accounts, 
to  wait  behind  a  counter,  or  travel  for  wares 
in  which  we  have  no  interest.  What  shall  we 
have  to  show  for  these  years  of  obscure  com- 
monplace !  If  it  were  not  for  the  necessity  of 
getting  bread  for  ourselves  and  the  young  or 
aged  lives  that  depend  on  us,  how  gladly  would 
we  renounce  our  homely  toils,  and  seek  some 
way  of  living  more  congenial  and  romantic, 
which  would  gain  the  notice  of  the  great  world, 
and  enable  us  to  feel  at  the  last  that  we  had 
not  lived  in  vain.  Life  becomes  very  bitter 
when  we  allow  thoughts  like  these  to  corrode 

90 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

it.  The  gnawing  of  the  worm  of  remorse  is  only 
more  to  be  feared  ! 

Of  course,  the  ultimate  remedy  for  the 
corrosion  of  discontent  is  to  get  down  to  the 
bottom  fact  of  the  will  of  God.  Every  morning 
and  evening  we    pray,  ''  Thy  will  be  done ''  ; 
but   of  what  use  is  it  to  utter  this   petition, 
unless  we  are  content  to  have  that  will  done 
in  us  ?     The  one  secret  of  life  and  peace  and 
growth  is  not  to  devise  and  plan  for  ourselves, 
but  to  accept  loyally  that  position  which  is 
assigned  to  us  by  Divine  Providence,  to  fall 
in  with  the  order' of  Society,  to  be  prepared  to 
be  a  cogwheel  so  long  as  we  are  included  in  the 
great  movement  of  the  age.    If  the  stand  on 
which  the  Master  of  the  House  has  placed  you 
is  a  very  lowly  or  common  one,  or  if  the  room 
you  are  called  to  illuminate  is  only  a  cold, 
dark  cellar,  still,  be  content  to  shine  your 
brightest,    and    do    not    repine    against  His 

decision. 

Perhaps  these  lowly  duties  are  the  highest 
of  which  you  are  really  capable  ;  or  perhaps 
they  are  given  as  the  supreme  test  of  your 
character  ;  and  if,  like  Joseph,  you  will  be 
thoughtful  and  attentive  to  the  poor  prisoners 
in  the  gaol,  you  may  be  promoted  to  a  high 
place  presently,  where  the  qualities  which 
have  been  approved  in  the  restricted  sphere 

91 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

of  the  commonplace  will  be  needed  to  direct 
the  affairs  of  the  nation.  What  vast  numbers 
have  never  had  the  chance  to  do  really  big 
things,  because  they  have  not  set  themselves 
carefully  and  earnestly  to  do  little  ones.  They 
have  not  been  promoted  to  rule  their  ten  cities 
because  in  discontented  pettishness  they  have 
buried  their  one  talent  in  the  ground.  *'  He 
who  neglects  a  thing  which  he  suspects  he 
ought  to  do,  because  it  seems  to  him  too  small 
a  thing,  is  deceiving  himself  ;  it  is  not  too 
little,  but  too  great  for  him,  that  he  doeth  it 
not.''  In  point  of  fact,  by  their  refusal  to  do 
little  things  well  men  are  perpetually  revealing 
their  littleness.  The  really  great  will  do  little 
things  greatly,  and  in  doing  them  thus  they 
show  themselves  of  the  highest  quality  possible. 
The  perfect  man  will  do  common  things 
perfectly. 

Have  you  not  noticed  how  the  greatest 
artists  choose  the  commonest  incidents  of  life 
and  glorify  them  ?  Take,  for  instance.  Millet's 
**  Angelus."  What  is  there  in  that  familiar 
picture  but  a  potato-patch,  a  couple  of  simple 
peasants  in  the  attitude  of  prayer,  and  a  church 
steeple  on  the  skyline  in  the  distance  !  They  are 
the  most  ordinary  objects  that  he  could  have 
selected  ;  but  out  of  them  the  great  artist  has 
constructed  a  conception  which  has  furnished 

92 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

a  moving  and  uplifting  inspiration  to  tens  of 
thousands.  The  fact  that  WelHngton  slept  on 
a  camp-bed,  or  that  Nelson  used  such  and 
such  a  common  article  of  toilet ;  that  Wilber- 
force  made  his  vow  under  this  tree,  or  that 
William  Carey  chalked  his  name  and  cobbler's 
trade  on  that  board  of  wood,  has  apprised  these 
ordinary  things  at  a  value  altogether  dispro- 
portionate to  their  actual  worth.  Why  should 
the  commonplace  drag  you  down  ?  Why 
should  not  you  lift  it  up,  so  that  people  may 
even  desire  to  be  occupied  in  that  very  sphere 
because  you  once  filled  it  ?  This  is  turning 
the  valley  of  Baca  into  a  place  of  water- 
springs. 

It  demands  a  much  larger  amount  of  virtue 
to  do  an  obscure  duty  nobly  than  one  that 
glistens  in  the  eye  of  the  public.  Perhaps  it  is 
not  so  difficult  to  die  a  martyr's  death,  when 
you  know  that  you  are  lighting  a  fire  that  will 
never  be  put  out ;  but  to  die  by  inches,  to 
starve  in  the  absence  of  human  love  and  sym- 
pathy, to  plod  on  with  no  word  of  gratitude 
or  recognition — this  is  the  supreme  test  of 
character. 

Besides  the  routine  nature  of  our  daily  toil 
affords  an  opportunity  for  a  more  intensive 
culture  of  the  soul.  An  occasional  effort,  on 
which  you  concentrate  all  3^our  thought  and 

93 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

prayer,  may  be  successful  in  attaining  the 
object  to  which  you  set  yourself.  But  it  is  too 
spasmodic,  too  transient,  to  give  you  an  oppor- 
tunity of  forming  permanent  character.  The 
mould  is  broken  before  the  metal  has  cooled. 
The  wine-skin  splits  and  the  wine  is  spilled. 
But  prolonged  discipline  in  ordinary  and 
commonplace  duty,  the  spirit's  silence  and 
unselfishness  carried  over  a  long  track  of  time, 
the  formation  of  a  hidden  habit  of  unassuming 
humility,  obedience,  and  piety,  adorn  the  soul 
with  a  saintly  beauty  which  can  only  result 
from  the  exercise  of  a  prolonged  endurance. 
Nothing  is  common  or  unclean  unless  degraded 
by  an  ignoble  soul.  The  lowliest  insect  when 
placed  beneath  the  microscope  has  beauties 
which  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  could  not  excel. 
The  desert  bush  is  aflame  with  God,  though 
we  fail  to  see.  The  meanest  flower  that  blows 
may  awaken  thoughts  too  deep  for  tears.  The 
flower  in  a  crannied  wall  may  be  a  window 
into  the  infinite.  ''  No  day,'*  says  some  one, 
''  is  commonplace  if  we  only  had  eyes  to  see 
its  splendour.  There  is  no  duty  that  comes  to 
our  hand  but  brings  with  it  the  possibility  of 
kingly  service."  Remember  that  the  glory  of 
Christ's  nature  made  the  poor  robes  He  wore 
shine  with  a  glory  and  whiteness  such  as  no 
fuller  on  earth  could  attain  to. 

94 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

"  The  common  problem — ^yours,  mine,  every  one's, 
Is  not  to  fancy  what  were  fair  in  life, 
Provided  it  could  be — ^but  finding  first 
What  may  be,  then  find  how  to  make  it  fair 
Up  to  our  means — a  very  different  thing." 

— R.  Browning; 

Character  has  been  said  to  have  the  power 
of  building  an  edifice  out  of  ordinary  circum- 
stances. From  the  same  materials,  common 
and  ordinary  as  bricks  and  mortar,  one  man 
builds  palaces,  and  another  hovels,  one  ware- 
houses, and  another  villas.  Bricks  and  mortar 
are  bricks  and  mortar  until  the  architect  makes 
something  else.  It  is  a  good  rule  for  an  artist 
to  mix  brains  with  his  paint,  but  for  a  Chris- 
tian it  is  a  still  better  rule  to  work  character 
on  the  canvas  of  the  commonplace  until 
the  blended  materials  yield  a  cloth  of  gold. 

:(«  :f:  Hi  4:  sf: 

Sometimes  the  way  will  dip  down  into  the 
shadowed  valley  of  great  sorrow.  The  Master 
said  that  He  would  give  us  a  joy  which  no 
man  could  take  from  us  ;  but  He  also  said  that 
our  sorrow  would  be  turned  into  joy.  It  is  as 
though  sorrow  were  the  raw  material  out  of 
which  He  makes  joy.  At  Cana  before  He  sup- 
plied the  guests  with  wine,  He  had  the 
water-pots  filled  with  water.  So  you  must  not 
be  surprised  if  now  you  have  sorrow,  for  out 

95 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

of  your  present  affliction  He  is  making  the 
eternal  weight  of  glory,  and  you  cannot  have 
that  without  this.  It  worketh  the  far  more 
exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory.  There  is 
not  one  tear  of  sorrow,  humbly  and  resignedly 
shed,  which  is  not  a  seed-corn  cast  into  the 
desolate  furrows  of  your  life,  and  which  shall 
not  yield  you  some  hundred-fold  of  joy  when 
the  summer  has  arrived. 

But  remember  to  take  your  sorrows  from 
the  divine  permission.  Even  though  his 
brethren  were  the  obvious  cause  of  his  long 
suffering,  Joseph  refused  to  see  their  hand  in 
it,  and  said  :  ^^  It  was  not  ye,  God  sent  me 
hither  to  preserve  life.''  If  you  prefer,  you  may 
make  the  distinction  between  what  God  per- 
mits and  what  He  decrees.  There  is  His  decre- 
tive will  that  ordains,  but  His  permission  has 
to  be  sought  before  Satan  can  tempt  Job,  or 
Pilate  crucify  the  Christ.  ''  Thou  couldst  do 
nothing  against  me,  except  it  were  given  thee 
from  above."  But  the  ultimate  fact  in  each 
case  is  the  will  of  God.  And  the  way  to  find 
sorrow's  yoke  both  easy  and  light  is  to  take 
it  from  the  Father's  hand,  saying  :  ''  Even  so. 
Father,  for  so  it  seemeth  good  in  Thy  sight." 
Then  the  yoke  becomes  wings  to  soar  with, 
something  as  when  we  were  children  the  tail 
of  our  kite  helped  the  kite  to  face  the  wind 

96 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

and  fly.     ''  I  asked  Allah  for  something  to 
ride  ;  He  gave  me  something  to  carry  !  '* 

But  much  depends  on  whether  we  turn  to 
the  lower  or  the  higher  help  when  sorrow  beats 
down  on  us  like  a  pitiless  storm.  If  we  stoop 
to  avail  ourselves  of  human  sympathy  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  divine,  or  resort  to  the  diver- 
sion of  company  or  travel  or  amusement,  we 
shall  come  out  of  our  trouble,  not  stronger  but 
weaker,  not  greater  but  smaller,  not  richer 
but  poorer.  But  if  we  turn  Godwards,  and 
seek  to  be  comforted  with  His  comfort,  if  we 
declare  that  we  have  none  in  heaven  or  earth 
that  we  desire  beside  Him,  then  will  a  light 
arise  to  us  in  the  darkness,  and  the  night  shall 
be  light  about  us. 

*'  Weeping,'*  says  the  Psalmist,  ''  may 
come  in  to  lodge  at  even."  (A.V.,  marg.)  We 
can  almost  see  her  veiled  figure  creeping  along 
under  the  shadows  of  the  big  trees,  whilst 
below  the  torrent  thunders  down  the  glen,  and 
she  seeks  lodging  for  the  night.  Let  us  not 
refuse  her  request,  for  she  will  repay  us  hand- 
somely as  she  leaves  our  house  at  dawn,  giving 
place  to  jocund  joy.  Her  payment  will  be 
fortitude,  patience,  self-control,  wisdom,  sym- 
pathy and  faith.  Adam  Bede,  the  great 
novelist  tells  us,  did  not  attempt  to  outlive  his 
sorrow,  did  not  let  it  slip  from  him  as  a  tem- 

H  97 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

porary  burden,  leaving  him  the  same  man  as 
before.  ''  It  would  be  a  poor  result  of  all  our 
anguish  and  wrestling,"  she  says,  ''  if  we  won 
nothing  but  our  old  selves  at  the  end  of  it — if 
we  could  return  to  the  same  blind  loves,  the 
same  self-confident  frame,  the  same  Hght 
thoughts  of  human  suffering,  the  same  frivo- 
lous gossip  over  blighted  human  lives,  the 
same  feeble  sense  of  the  unknown  towards 
which  we  have  sent  forth  irrepressible  cries 
in  our  loneliness.  Let  us  rather  be  thankful 
that  our  sorrow  lives  in  us  as  an  indomitable 
force,  only  changing  its  form,  as  forces  do,  and 
passing  from  pain  into  sympathy — the  one 
poor  word  which  includes  all  our  best  thoughts 
and  our  best  love." 

"  Do  not  cheat  thy  heart  and  tell  her 
*  Grief  will  pass  away, 
Hope  for  fairer  times  in  future, 

And  forget  to-day.' 
Tell  her  if  you  will  that  sorrow 
Need  not  come  in  vain  ; 
I  Tell  her  that  the  lesson  taught  her 

Far  outweighs  the  pain." 

Sorrow  is  necessary  to  the  soul,  as  a  back- 
ground for  the  rainbow  of  hope  to  repose  upon. 
Sorrow  is  the  furnace  that  burns  our  bonds, 
so  that  we  walk  free  in  the  fires.  Sorrow  is  the 
veil  flung  over  the  cage  of  the  song-bird  whilst 

98 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

it  learns  to  sing.  Sorrow  is  the  excuse  for  God 
to  draw  nearer  to  us,  and  for  Him  to  draw  us 
nearer  to  Himself.  Sorrow  is  God's  almoner, 
who  brings  His  fairest  gifts  packed  in  rough 
cases.  But,  after  all,  the  gift  which  has 
required  most  packing,  and  comes  encased  in 
straw,  and  crate,  and  matting,  however  ugly 
the  appearance,  is  the  most  valuable  and 
precious. 

In  sore  trouble,  let  us  anoint  our  heads  and 
wash  our  faces,  so  that  we  may  not  seem  to 
others  to  be  hardly  used  at  our  Father's  hands. 
Though  your  heart  be  sad  within  you,  let 
cheery  words  and  kindly  deeds  go  forth  to 
others.  Meet  them  with  a  gentle  welcome, 
considerate  kindness,  and  helpful  words.  There 
is  no  cure  for  heartache  and  heartbreak  so 
sure  or  speedy  as  becoming  a  son  or  daughter 
of  consolation,  after  the  manner  of  the  good 
Barnabas.  No  trouble  should  be  too  great  to 
make  us  forget  to  show  courtesy  to  those 
around  us,  and  especially  to  the  poor,  the  timid 
and  the  oppressed.  No  heart-sorrow  must  be 
so  engrossing  as  to  rob  us  of  our  readiness  to 
show  kindness  and  sympathy.  We  must  school 
ourselves  to  obey  a  code  of  unfaltering  noble- 
ness, whatever  our  inward  smart ;  to  subject 
ourselves  to  a  vigorous  self-discipline  lest  we 
become  self-centred  in  our  grief.    But  directly 

99 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

we  compel  ourselves  to  take  this  side  against 
ourself,  we  begin  to  recover.  The  heart-forces 
begin  to  rally.  The  tears  begin  to  flow  more 
quietly.  A  new  radiance  comes  into  our  eyes, 
and  we  ask  to  be  called  not  Marah,  but  Naomi 
— Pleasantness.  ''  I  beg  you/'  wrote  Phillips 
Brooks,  '*  whatever  be  your  suffering,  to  learn 
first  of  all  that  God  does  not  mean  to  take 
your  sorrow  off,  but  to  put  strength  into  you, 
that  you  may  be  able  to  carry  it.  Be  sure 
your  sorrow  is  not  yielding  you  its  best, 
unless  it  makes  you  a  more  thoughtful  person 
than  you  have  ever  been  before," 

Perhaps  the  loftiest  attitude  to  take  up  in 
the  presence  of  some  crushing  sorrow  is  to  dare 
to  thank  God  for  it.  A  lady  of  my  acquaint- 
ance, on  hearing  from  her  doctor  that  her 
children  were  sickening  for  scarlet  fever,  before 
taking  the  necessary  precautions,  went  direct 
to  her  room,  and  kneeling  before  God  said  : 
**  I  thank  Thee,  Father,  for  allowing  this  to 
come,  because  Thou  couldst  not  have  allowed 
so  great  a  trouble,  except  for  its  vast  revenue 
of  gain  to  us  all.'*  And  it  was  so,  because 
through  that  illness  salvation  came  to  that 
house.  *'  Whatever  seeming  calamity  happens 
to  you,"  says  William  Law,  "  if  you  thank  and 
praise  God  for  it,  you  turn  it  into  a  blessing. 
Could  you,  therefore,  work  miracles,  you  could 

I<DO 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

not  do  more  for  yourself  than  by  this  thankful 
spirit  ;  for  it  heals  with  a  word  spoken,  and 
turns  all  that  it  touches  into  happiness." 
Therefore, 

"  Measure  thy  life  by  loss  instead  of  gain. 
Not  by  the  wine  drunk,  but  by  the  wine  poured 
out." 

4:  ♦  ♦  3|t  4:  ♦ 

The  way  becomes  so  precipitous  and  dan- 
gerous in  places  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
keep  our  feet.  We  lose  our  footing  and  roll 
down  the  slope,  carrying  with  us  a  pother  of 
rubble,  stones,  and  dust.  In  these  hours  of 
set-back  and  jailure,  we  are  sorely  daunted 
and  ashamed,  especially  when  we  can  trace 
our  mishaps  to  moral  and  spiritual  defects 
that  might  and  ought  to  have  been  avoided. 
We  are  disappointed  with  ourselves ;  we 
become  querulous  and  peevish  because  of  what 
we  fancy  has  been  a  needlessly  difficult  test  ; 
we  lose  heart  and  yield  to  the  suggestion  that 
it  is  useless  to  make  any  further  attempt.  At 
such  times  we  lock  ourselves  up  with  our  dark 
thoughts,  and  carefully  exclude  the  soft  warm 
breath  of  the  summer  which  awaits  us  out- 
side, the  forgiving  love  and  grace  of  God, 
which  is  never  nearer  to  us  than  at  such  times. 
It  often  seems  to  me  that  we  do  more  to 


lOI 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

destroy  our  peace,  and  interrupt  our  happy 
relationship  with  God,  by  yielding  to  discour- 
agement and  pessimism,  and  doubting  God's 
willingness  to  forgive  and  restore,  than  by  our 
recent  lapse  into  failure.  Our  sin  is  not  so 
harmful  in  its  effects,  evil  as  they  may  be,  as 
the  refusal  to  believe  that  God  will  remember 
our  sins  and  iniquities  no  more.  At  the  first 
moment  of  real  contrition  and  confession,  they 
are  as  absolutely  wiped  out  as  though  they 
have  never  been  committed.  They  have  dis- 
appeared as  a  wreath  of  cloud  in  the  clear 
heavens,  or  as  a  stone  dropped  into  miles  of 
ocean-water. 

It  is  a_mistake  to  suppose  that  the  most 
successful  men  are  those  who  have  never 
failed,  or  that  do  not  fail.  More  have  succeeded 
through  failure.  The  man  who  has  never  failed 
is  less  able  to  understand  and  manage  his 
fellows,  is  less  tactful  and  self-controlled,  is 
less  likely  to  be  able  to  avert  disaster  and  re- 
trieve lost  causes,  than  those  who  have  learnt 
the  sources  of  weakness,  only  to  guard  against 
their  recurrence,  and  avoid  them  in  future. 
The  best  teachers  are  they  who  have  been 
warned  and  corrected  by  their  own  mistakes. 
The  captain  who  has  had  an  accident  with  his 
steamer,  and  the  commander  who  has  lost  a 
battle,  but  who   have   deeply  pondered   the 

I02 


\ 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

sharp  lesson,  and  obtained  the  honey  out  of 
the  carcass  of  the  lion,  are  more  careful  and 
prudent  than  untempered  success,  which  may 
become  foolhardy,  could  make  them.  Do  not 
dwell  on  your  faults.  Notice  carefully  how  they 
occurred.  Analyse  their  inception,  progress, 
and  maturity.  Learn  your  lesson  so  carefully 
that  you  may  not  make  the  same  mistake 
again.  Then  forget  the  things  that  are  behind, 
your  past  successes  and  your  past  failures,  and 
*'  press  forward  to  the  mark  of  the  prize  of  your 
high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus.'*  Listen  to  Car- 
lyle's  advice  on  this  point.  He  says  :  ''  Never 
let  mistakes  or  wrong  directions,  of  which 
every  man  falls  into  many,  discourage  you. 
There  is  precious  instruction  to  be  got  by 
finding  we  were  wrong.  I-et  a  man  try  faith- 
fully, manfully,  to  be  right  ;  he  will  grow  daily] 
more  and  more  right.'* 

The  idea  that  prevails  with  so  many  is  to 
get  away  from  their  past,  and  begin  all  over 
again.  It  is  natural  enough  ;  and  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  we  awake  each  new  morning 
to  live  in  the  freshness  of  new  resolve  ;  but 
let  us  never  forget  that  the  noblest  men 
are  they  who  make  their  mistakes  and 
failures  stepping-stones  to  a  more  conspicuous 
success,  and,  baffled,  have  learned  to  fight 
better. 

103 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

"  Deem  not  the  irrevocable  past 
As  wholly  wasted,  wholly  vain, 
If,  rising  on  its  wrecks,  at  last 
To  something  nobler  we  attain." 

— Longfellow. 

There  is  a  great  difference  between  falling 
with  the  face  towards  or  falling  with  the  face 
averted  from  the  ideal ;  or,  to  put  it  bluntly, 
between  falling  up  and  falling  down.  There  are 
some  who,  when  they  have  lost  their  footing, 
resign  themselves  to  the  force  of  moral  gravi- 
tation, and  continually  descend  with  an  ever- 
increasing  velocity.  They  despair  of  them- 
selves, despair  of  forgiveness,  despair  of  God. 
For  them  the  one  fall  has  so  broken  their  self- 
complacency  that  they  cannot  face  a  repeti- 
tion, and  will  not  believe  that  pure  virtue  is 
unattainable  in  man's  native  strength.  Others 
there  are,  cast  in  a  happier  mould,  who,  whilst 
falling,  keep  their  eyes  fixed  on  the  glistening 
purity  above  them,  and  have  no  sooner 
touched  the  ground  than  they  spring  to  their 
feet  again,  and  begin  to  climb  anew.  They 
refuse  to  have  the  great  matter  settled  by 
one  untoward  accident.  One  point  may  be 
lost,  but  the  game  is  not  finished.  Paganini 
once,  in  the  face  of  an  expectant  audience, 
broke  every  string  of  his  violin  but  one,  and 
cried :  ''  One  string  and  Paganini !  "    Yes,  one 

104 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

last  string  and  God,  will  yet  make  music  out 
of  an  almost  wrecked  life  ! 

There  are  other  setbacks,  which  arise 
not  so  much  from  moral  defect  or  obliquity, 
but  from  errors  of  judgment.  We  see  how 
such  and  such  a  step  led  to  a  dissipation  of 
energy,  a  waste  of  time,  injury  to  ourselves 
and  others,  misunderstandings,  heart-burn- 
ing, and  the  beclouding  of  a  fair  dawn.  ''  If 
only  we  had  that  chance  in  our  hand  again," 
we  exclaim,  ''  how  differently  we  would  act." 
This  confession  is  very  tormenting.  What 
a  labyrinth  of  conjectures  we  enter  upon, 
when  we  try  to  piece  out  for  ourselves  the 
happenings  which  might  have  taken  place, 
if  only  we  had  decided  and  acted  differently  ! 
We  always  seem  to  suppose  that  any  course 
would  have  been  better  than  the  one  we 
adopted,  and  that  any  other  path  w^ould 
have  brought  us  out  on  the  main  road.  But 
this  is  by  no  means  certain.  As  likely  as 
not,  it  would  have  landed  us  in  a  similar 
or  worse  quagmire.  This  incessant  worry 
over  the  past  is  as  weakening  and  disabling 
as  it  is  absolutely  useless  and  vain.  You  are 
not  only  helpless  to  undo  what  is  done,  but 
you  sap  the  energy  with  which  you  should 
face  the  situation  which  has  been  created 
and    requires    strong    handling.       You    dis- 

105 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

courage  others  by  your  expressions  of  regret. 
That  rude  soldier,  Joab,  spoke  admirable 
good  sense  to  David  when  he  gave  way  to 
excessive  weeping  over  his  miscreant  son. 
*'  The  victory  that  day  was  turned  into  mourn- 
ing unto  all  the  people,  for  the  people  heard 
say  how  the  King  was  grieved  for  his  son, 
and  the  people  gat  them  by  stealth  into  the 
city,  as  people  that  are  ashamed  steal  away 
when  they  flee  in  battle.*'  And  the  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  army,  which  had 
saved  the  kingdom  for  him,  said  :  '*  Arise 
and  go  forth  and  speak  comfortably  to  thy 
servants,  for  I  swear  by  the  Lord,  if  thou 
go  not  forth,  there  will  not  tarry  a  man  with 
thee  this  night  ;  and  that  will  be  worse  unto 
thee  than  all  the  evil  that  hath  befallen  thee 
from  thy  youth  until  now." 

On  the  whole,  in  this  case  also,  it  is  wise 
to  forget  the  things  that  are  behind.  It  is 
a  good  maxim  that  if  you  have  acted  accord- 
ing to  the  best  light  you  had  at  the  time,  what 
you  decided  on  was  the  will  of  God  and  was 
the  best  that  could  be  done.  You  had  not 
your  present  experience  at  your  side  then. 
You  could  not  forecast  how  the  matter  would 
work  out.  You  did  your  best,  so  far  as  you 
then  knew.  If  you  had  to  make  your  decision 
again  under  the  same  conditions,  it  would  be 

1 06 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

almost  certainly  identical  with  the  one  that 
you  now  deplore.  Then  leave  it  there.  Don't 
fret  or  worry.  You  trusted  in  God,  when  you 
acted  ;  dare  to  believe  that  His  hand  was 
guiding  you.  This  was  the  best  way  through, 
however  difficult  it  is.  Any  other  way  would 
not  only  have  been  difficult,  but  impassable. 
The  difficulties  you  are  encountering  are 
hard  to  flesh  and  blood,  but  they  are  as 
much  slighter  than  they  would  have  been, 
as  the  waters  at  the  neap  are  lower  than  at 
the  flood.  Let  the  past  no  longer  debilitate 
you.  Rise  and  meet  the  present.  You  did 
what  you  thought  to  be  right  when  you  turned 
back  from  the  straight  road  to  Canaan,  and 
marched  directly  on  the  Red  Sea.  The 
mountains  block  your  onward  march,  the  sea 
lies  all  along  upon  your  left  hand,  and  now 
Pharaoh  and  his  men  of  war  are  pressing 
on  your  track.  You  are  in  a  wedge  of  per- 
plexity and  peril.  Throw  the  responsibility 
of  the  position  on  God,  whose  will  you  have 
endeavoured  to  do.  Stand  still  and  see  His 
salvation.  He  will  make  a  way  in  the  sea 
and  a  ^  path  in  the  mighty  waters,  for 
none  of  them  that  trust  in  Him  shall  be 
desolate. 

The  one  crucial  question  in  all  this  must  U 
always  be.   Am  I  growing  ?    We  have  had 

107 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

our  ups  and  downs,  our  crushing  defeats,  our 
catastrophes,  our  hours  of  heartbreak  and 
despair.  Our  Jabbok-brooks,  with  their  mys- 
terious conflicts,  have  left  us  halting  in  our 
gait.  The  craft  of  Delilah,  to  whom  we  ought 
never  to  have  submitted  ourselves,  has  de- 
prived us  of  vision  and  brought  us  to  grind 
in  the  prison  house.  But  has  there  been 
growth  ?  After  all,  no  man  need  write  Icha- 
bod  on  his  life,  if  through  all  its  various 
experiences  he  has  never  turned  his  back, 
but  has  always  marched  breast-forward.  It 
is  not  so  much  a  question  of  what  we  have 
done,  but  of  what  has  accrued  to  our  character 
in  the  doing.  One  battle,  lost  or  won,  sel- 
dom alone  decides  the  fate  of  the  campaign. 
Inch  by  inch  the  enemy  must  be  driven 
back.  Year  after  year  the  building  pro- 
ceeds. The  grave  question  is.  What  are  the 
net  gains  of  life?  That  we  have  had  re- 
verses, made  bad  debts,  been  deceived  and 
baffled,  is  sure ;  but  has  the  King's  business 
prospered,  and  will  the  balance-sheet  at 
the  end  show  a  clear  and  satisfactory  profit  ? 
"  The  tired  wavelets "  close  in  shore  may 
seem  no  painful  inch  to  gain  ;  but  what  of 
that  if 

"  Far  back,  through  creeks  and  inlets  making, 
Comes  silent,  flooding  in,  the  main !  " 
1081 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

Whilst  writing  these  words,  and  looking 
out  on  the  beautiful  Carse  of  Gowrie,  clad 
in  its  verdure  of  living  green,  stretching  to 
the  broad  waters  of  the  Tay,  a  slight  mist  is 
stealing  upwards  towards  this  noble  pile  of 
buildings,  which  commands  the  far-spread 
landscape.  This  mist,  which  may  blot  out 
the  hills,  and  even  the  great  Lomonds  in 
the  west,  reminds  one  of  the  questionings  and 
doubts  which  will  sometimes  overspread  the 
soul.  Did  not  John  the  Baptist  become  en- 
veloped in  them  ?  It  was  perhaps  hardly 
to  be  wondered  at.  He  was  the  child  of  the 
wide  open  spaces  of  Judah.  His  couch  a 
sheltering  cave,  his  canopy  as  often  as  not 
the  starlit  dome  of  the  sky,  his  food  the  wild 
produce  of  Nature,  the  winds  his  sisters,  the 
giant  mountains  his  brethren.  To  him  it 
was  the  veriest  torture  to  be  immured  in  the 
close,  sunless  dungeons  of  the  Castle  of 
Macherus,  beyond  the  Jordan.  Hardly  a 
breath  of  God's  fresh  air  ever  found  its  way 
thither,  and  not  a  ray  of  light.  For  the  har- 
mony of  Nature  were  substituted  the  discords 
of  distant  rioting,  as  when  Herod  gathered 
his  captains  and  high  estates  to  drunken  and 
lascivious  revelries.  Why  did  not  He,  on 
whose  face  that  ray  had  shone,  and  who 
had  been  saluted  as  Son  of  God,  interpose  for 

1 09 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

his  release  ?  Was  He  unmindful,  or  was  He 
impotent  ?  In  either  case,  He  must  have 
abdicated  His  throne.  Was  it  all  delusion  ? 
Had  he  mistaken  his  own  longings  for  the 
semblance  of  that  dove?  Is  it  altogether 
to  be  wondered  at  that  he  sent  messengers 
to  Christ,  saying,  "  Art  thou  He  that  should 
come,  or  look  we  for  another  ?  "  A  sad 
descent  was  here  from  his  announcement, 
''  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  !  "  Had  he,  as 
porter,  opened  the  door  of  the  sheepfold  to 
one  who  was  not  the  Shepherd  after  all ! 

Christ  was  not  surprised.  There  was  no 
rebuke  in  His  tone,  no  bitterness  of  reproach 
in  His  reply.  He  only  hastened  to  give  the 
agreed  countersign  of  the  Messiah.  ''  Go, 
tell  John  what  ye  have  seen."  .  .  .  And 
when  the  messengers  had  gone.  He  affirmed 
John  to  be  the  greatest  of  woman-bom. 
Evidently  that  hour  of  honest  doubt  had 
not,  in  our  Lord's  estimate,  lowered  his 
dignity  or  sullied  his  claim.  It  was  almost 
as  if  our  Lord  took  it  for  granted  that,  under 
such  conditions  of  confinement  on  the  one 
hand,  and  delayed  release  on  the  other, 
John's  despondent  questionings  could  hardly 
be  wondered  at. 

Perhaps  He  judges  similarly  of  us  all.    There 
are  many  incitements  to  similar  misgivings 

I  lO 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

in  the  present  day.  They  arise,  in  part,  from 
the  comparative  study  of  non-Christian  reh- 
gions  ;  from  the  advance  of  exact  scientific 
investigation,  which  leads  us  to  demand 
similar  exactitude  in  the  evidences  for  reli- 
gious statements  ;  and  in  the  general  flux  of 
opinion,  occasioned  by  the  decay  of  time- 
worn  formularies  and  the  slow  process  of 
substituting  new  ones.  The  old  order  is 
changing,  and  giving  place  to  new  ;  but  the 
precise  shape  of  the  new  is  not  yet  deter- 
mined, and  men  fail  to  distinguish  between 
truth,  which  is  immutably  the  same,  and  the 
forms  in  which  it  is  capsuled. 

There  is  no  real  reason  to  be  disturbed 
by  any  one  of  these.  As  to  the  first,  it 
would  have  been  surprising  if  the  old  seekers 
after  truth  had  not  caught  sight  of  the 
great  panorama  that  lies  open  to  God's 
eye,  as  the  earth  to  heaven.  There  must 
have  been  scintillations  and  fragments  of  truth, 
or  their  words  could  not  have  satisfied  such 
innumerable  multitudes  ;  and  all  truth  comes 
ultimately  through  the  Word  of  God.  Mathe- 
matic  truth  is  ever  the  same  to  every  nation, 
kindred,  and  age  that  sets  itself  to  its  study. 
Always  and  everywhere  the  three  angles  of 
a  triangle  are  equal  to  two  right  angles. 
Every  investigator  must  come  to  that  con- 

III 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

elusion.  So  when  pure  hearts  earnestly  desire 
to  find  the  truth,  they  must  come  on  dis- 
coveries, which  remind  us  of  the  Beatitudes. 
But  outside  of  Christianity  these  scattered 
chippings  and  splinters  of  truth  are  com- 
bined into  no  system,  set  forth  in  no  sym- 
metrical human  character,  and  made  prac- 
ticable by  no  sufficient  dynamic.  And  in  these 
three  respects  Christianity  has  nothing  to 
fear  from  their  rivalry.  It  is  the  one  full- 
orbed  and  sufficient  revelation  of  God  to 
man  ! 

Or,  to  take  the  second,  is  there  any  need 
to  be  anxious  because  Christianity  cannot  be 
stated  in  a  series  of  clear-cut  formulae,  or 
proved  by  such  evidences  as  can  be  adduced 
by  the  astronomer  or  the  chemist  ?  It  is 
*'  spirit  and  life,"  as  the  Master  said.  You 
cannot  define  Love :  you  cannot  give  a 
mathematical  proof  of  Love ;  you  cannot 
argue  on  the  invariable  method  of  Love. 
Even  the  scientific  man  lays  aside  his  subtle 
analysis  and  demonstration  when  he  comes 
home  to  wife  and  children  ! 

Of  course  Religion  has  its  evidences,  just 
as  Love  has,  but  they  are  not  such  as  can  be 
subjected  to  the  reactions  of  chemistry  or  the 
investigations  of  the  anatomist. 

Or  take  the  third  source  of  trouble  to  many 

112 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

— the  exchange  of  the  formularies  of  our  early 
religion  for  the  views  and  nomenclature  which 
are  now  coming  into  vogue.  Can  it  be  wondered 
at  that  there  are  discomfort,  foreboding,  and 
alarm  ?  Can  we  be  surprised  when  hands  are 
stretched  out  to  steady  the  ark  of  the  Lord  ? 
But  there  would  be  no  anxiety  if  only  Christian 
folk  would  distinguish  between  the  things  that 
can  and  that  cannot  be  shaken.  The  state- 
ments of  our  belief  can  be  shaken.  Our  views, 
we  will  say  of  inspiration  by  dictation,  may 
have  to  be  modified.  Creeds  which  our  fathers 
held  dear,  as  the  Athanasian,  may  have  to  be 
laid  aside.  But  none  of  these  affect  the  truths 
which  they  have  embodied  and  held.  As  Dr. 
Goulburn  puts  it  :  *'  It  is  only  the  principles 
of  Truth,  Goodness,  and  Right  which  are  to 
last  for  ever.  The  forms  in  which  these  exhibit 
themselves  will  necessarily  vary  with  the  age 
and  state  of  society.*'  That  the  Bible  is  abso- 
lutely sovereign  among  books,  clothed  with 
imperial  splendour,  echoing  with  the  divine 
voice,  and  crowned  with  the  halo  of  divine 
glory,  is  always  apparent,  whatever  theory  you 
have  of  inspiration. 

There  is  one  item  of  good  advice  which 
may  as  well  be  stated  here.  Beware  not  to  talk 
about  your  doubts.  Some  people  hawk  their 
doubts  about  as  beggars  in  Eastern  lands  hawk 

I  113 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

around  their  sores  to  extract  sympathy  and 
halfpence.  If  you  are  in  doubt,  there  is  no 
reason  why  you  should  not  consult  some  one 
who  is  competent  to  advise  you,  but  do  not 
get  into  the  way  of  posing  as  a  doubter  in  the 
mistaken  idea  that  a  doubter  must  be  an  intel- 
lect ualist.  The  only  way  that  some  people  can 
contrive  to  be  accounted  clever  is  that  they 
will  not  accept  anything  with  the  common 
herd.  When  people  really  doubt,  it  is  an  agony 
too  great  to  be  talked  about.  It  is  like  a  family 
sorrow,  that  is  only  discussed  when  the  doors 
are  shut  and  the  family  are  alone.  Besides,  you 
have  no  right  to  scatter  thistledown.  You  may 
state  a  case  or  ask  a  question  that  may  disturb 
some  young  soul  through  long  years.  Any  fool 
can  drive  a  hammer  through  a  Murillo,  or 
break  a  superb  window  of  mediaeval  glass  ;  but 
it  takes  genius,  patience,  and  laborious  indus- 
try to  undo  the  harm  wrought  in  a  thought- 
less hour. 

When  doubts  assail,  it  is  wise  to  plod  on 
in  the  old  paths,  doing  what  is  right,  and 
continuing  to  maintain  the  sacred  habits  of 
obedience,  meditation,  prayer,  and  service. 
It  is  always  right  to  be  good  and  to  do  right. 
It  is  always  right  to  pray  to  God.  It  is  always 
right  to  be  kind  and  loving,  generous  and  pure, 
just    towards    men    and    righteous    towards 

114 


Some   Experiences  on  the  Way 

God.  You  can  always  be  orthodox  in  loving 
and  living,  whatever  may  happen  to  your 
orthodoxy  of  belief.  The  Lord  Jesus  may 
always  be  your  Master.  It  is  always  right  to 
pray  to  Him  for  help.  There  may  be  times 
when  in  your  bewilderment  you  cannot  find 
help,  but  you  can  always  give  help.  Whatever 
you  do,  refuse  to  allow  doubt  to  alienate  or 
divide  you  from  the  Father  of  Lights.  It  is 
not  by  agonising  over  your  difficulties,  but  by 
communion  with  Him  that  all  your  storms 
will  subside  and  become  a  great  calm.  What 
you  cannot  understand,  leave  for  a  time  and 
go  along  your  way  in  perseverance  and  obedi- 
ence, and  some  day,  all  unexpectedly.  He  will 
take  you  to  His  bosom,  and  say  :  *'  I  could  not 
explain  this  before,  because  you  could  not 
understand  ;  but  now  see,  it  is  thus  and  thus.'' 
In  His  light,  we  see  light. 

^  H<  H:  ^  4^  ^ 

The  travellers  on  the  King's  highway  find 
that  very  often  it  lies  directly  through  the 
battle-grounds  of  the  world,  that  call  to  the 
soldier-element  in  us  all,  and  we  dare  not 
shirk  the  appeal.  Your  lot  may  lie  amid  the 
green  pastures  and  still  waters  !  Be  thankful 
that  it  is  so  !  Yours  the  sweet  song  of  the 
weaned  child  !    But  this  is  not  allotted  to  us 

115 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

all.  Here  in  the  grounds  of  this  noble  resi- 
dence there  is  a  unique  contrast,  which  will 
serve  to  illustrate  this  point. 

We  have  been  walking  on  a  high  ridge 
among  the  firs  ;  suddenly,  on  our  left,  the 
ground  slopes,  and  through  an  avenue  of  yews, 
standing  at  sentry-duty  on  either  side,  we 
descend  to  a  lovely  flower-garden,  ensconced 
in  a  fine  yew-hedge  some  five  feet  in  depth, 
and  except  where  it  rears  itself  into  arches  and 
buttresses,  some  six  feet  high.  We  enter  and 
leave  through  these  noble  arched  entrances — 
the  fitting  gateways  to  this  second  Paradise. 
Pursuing  our  way  down  the  four  successive 
levels  of  sward,  on  which  the  western  sun, 
through  the  surrounding  trees,  is  shedding 
shafts  of  light,  we  pass  between  masses  of 
lavender,  lavender-nepeta,  and  mignonette ; 
and  then  my  gentle  hostess  names  the  amazing 
variety  of  flowers  before  us,  our  voices  min- 
gling with  the  music  of  falling  water  and  the 
hum  of  bees.  One  is  inclined  to  envy  these 
exquisite  plants,  thus  sheltered  and  shielded 
from  the  winds,  and  covering  these  banks, 
facing  the  southern  sky.  But  stay  !  Look  up- 
ward to  the  wood  behind,  which  shelters  the 
garden  from  the  north  wind.  Carry  your  eye 
along  the  ridge  !  Do  you  notice  those  great 
gaps  that  break  the  line  of  tree-tops  ?    They 

ii6 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

have  been  wrought  by  successive  storms  that 
have  cut  and  torn  their  way,  each  leaving 
behind  a  deep  ravine  of  devastation.  That 
specially  deep  opening  was  caused  by  the  fear- 
ful storm  which  wrecked  the  Tay  Bridge  and 
tore  up  in  a  single  night,  ia  this  plantation 
alone,  some  three  hundred  trees.  What  a  con- 
trast between  these  flowers  and  those  silver, 
Scotch,  and  Australian  firs  and  pines  !  Yet 
who  would  not  rather  be  a  tree  fighting  the 
hurricane  in  its  effort  to  shelter  the  vale  and 
plain  beneath  than  a  flower,  expending  its 
ephemeral  existence  in  one  brief  summer  ? 
**  The  wind  passeth  over  it,  and  it  is  gone,  and 
the  place  thereof  knoweth  it  no  more." 

Be  thankful,  then,  if  you  are  called  to 
stand  for  the  right  against  all  that  injures  and 
defiles  the  souls  of  men  ;  or  if  you  have  not 
yet  found  your  regiment  in  the  army,  and  your 
place  in  it,  ask  that  you  may  be  entrusted  with 
some  share  in  the  great  conflict,  in  which 
angels  from  above  and  demons  from  the  pit 
take  part,  and  which  has  swept  to  and  fro 
upon  the  battle-ground  through  all  the  Chris- 
tian ages.  ''  Remember,"  says  Thomas  Carlyle, 
''  now  and  always  that  life  is  no  idle  dream, 
but  a  solemn  reality,  based  upon  eternity  and 
encompassed  by  eternity.  Find  out  your  task  ; 
stand  to  it ;  '  the  night  cometh  when  no  man 

"7 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

can  work/  "  And  Ruskin  eloquently  forces 
home  on  each  of  us  his  personal  responsibility  : 
''  There  is  work,"  he  says,  ''  for  all  of  us.  And 
there  is  special  work  for  each,  work  which  I 
cannot  do  in  a  crowd,  or  as  one  of  a  mass,  but 
as  one  man,  acting  singly,  according  to  my 
gifts,  and  under  a  sense  of  my  personal  re- 
sponsibilities. I  have  a  special  work  to  do, 
as  one  individual,  who,  by  God's  plan  and 
appointment,  has  a  separate  position,  sepa- 
rate responsibilities,  and  a  separate  work  :  a 
work  which,  if  I  do  not  do  it,  must  be  left 
undone." 

Fight  against  every  wrong  which  is  blast- 
ing human  purity  or  happiness.  Do  not  fight 
for  a  party  as  such,  unless  you  feel  that  its 
policy  will  better  promote  the  well-being  of 
others.  Choose  your  principle  first,  and  then 
ally  yourself  with  those  who  think  with  you, 
for  the  attainment  of  your  common  purpose. 
To  be  a  partisan  only,  and  to  aid  and  abet  one 
party  merely  because  it  is  your  party,  is 
liable  to  mislead  you.  Be  true  to  the  great 
programme  of  Christ,  to  protect  the  weak,  to 
succour  the  wounded  and  crippled,  to  destroy 
the  arch-enemies  of  man,  and  to  witness  with 
unfaltering  voice  for  all  that  is  honourable, 
just,  pure,  lovely  and  of  good  report.  This  will 
save  you  from  expending  your  strength  for 

ii8 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

nought.  Never  mind  being  misjudged.  Con- 
firm the  feeble  knees,  and  say  to  those  that  are 
of  a  fearful  heart,  Be  strong  ! 

"  Nay,  best  it  is  indeed, 
To  spend  ourselves  upon  the  general  good  ; 
And,  oft  misunderstood, 

To  strive  to  lift  the  limbs  and  knees  that  bleed ; 
This  is  the  best,  the  fullest  meed. 
Let  ignorance  assail  or  hatred  sneer ; 
Who  loves  his  race  he  shall  not  fear  ; 
He  suffers  not  for  long 

Who  doth  his  soul  possess  in  loving  and  grows 
strong; 

"  Ay,  labour,  thou  art  blest. 
From  all  the  earth  thy  voice,  a  constant  prayer, 
Soars  upward  day  and  night  : 
A  voice  of  aspiration  after  right ; 
A  voice  of  effort  yearning  for  its  rest ; 
A  voice  of  high  hope  conquering  despair." 

— Lewis  Morris. 

But  do  not  battle  in  your  own  might. 
When  you  come  into  collision  with  high- 
handed wrong  ;  when  you  are  called  to  deal 
with  people  from  whom  all  decency  and  every 
vestige  of  humanity  seems  expunged  ;  when 
you  discover  the  Protean  forms  of  evil,  which 
resisted  here,  break  out  there,  and  evade  the 
strokes  of  your  good  sword  ;  or  when,  after 
a  long  day  of  fightmg,  you  are  suddenly  sum- 

119 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

moned  from  well-earned  rest  to  fling  yourself 
again  into  the  fray — amid  the  pressure  of  the 
fight  you  will  certainly  succumb,  unless  the 
arms  of  your  hands  are  made  strong  by  the 
Hands  of  the  Mighty  God  of  Jacob.  Remember 
that  in  the  fight  you  may  fall  in  apparent 
failure,  defeat,  and  death,  but  no  effort  for  the 
right  and  true  is  ever  in  vain,  no  stroke  is 
fruitless,  no  corn  of  wheat  falls  into  the 
ground  to  die,  but  that  it  will  spring  again  to 
yield  a  thousand-fold. 

Oh,  the  pity  of  it,  that  so  many  amongst 
us,  who  have  leisure,  a  competence,  and  even 
wealth,  education,  talent,  power,  are  content 
to  dream  away  their  lives,  like  Tennyson's 
lotos-eaters,  when  they  might  be  leaders  and 
champions  in  the  great  battle  against  the 
giant  evils  of  our  time.  It  would  be  well  in- 
deed for  Britain,  and  well  for  the  world,  if 
all  the  children  of  the  leisured  classes  would 
consecrate  themselves  to  these  great  tasks. 
Much  of  the  legislation  which  they  hate  and 
dread  would  never  have  been  proposed,  if 
only  wealth  and  education  and  opportunity 
had  always  been  accepted  as  a  trusteeship 
rather  than  a  couch  of  ease.  Let  there  be  a 
war,  and  our  gilded  youth,  as  in  the  South 
African  campaign,  will  pour  out  in  hundreds 
to  fight  beside  the  common  soldiers  in  a  great 

120 


Some  Experiences  on  the  Way 

brotherhood  of  heroism  !  But  why  do  not 
more  of  them  hear  the  summons  to  the  noblest 
battlefield  of  all,  and  engage  in  the  campaign 
against  Ignorance,  Lust,  and  Greed  !  Be  it 
only  understood  that  the  motive  must  not 
be  to  discover  some  fresh  method  of  killing 
time,  or  creating  a  diversion,  but  a  sober  con- 
secration to  a  great  cause,  like  that  which 
Wilberforce  or  Shaftesbury  made  when  they 
chose  their  life-work. 


Thus  the  way  through  life  moves  from 
incident  to  incident,  reminding  us  of  Chau- 
cer's ''  Canterbury  Tales,''  told  by  the  pil- 
grims. For  none  of  us  do  they  occur  in  the 
same  order.  Each  of  us  has  his  own  series, 
specially  adapted  to  his  peculiar  character- 
istics. But  from  time  to  time  there  are  holy 
resting  places,  where  we  refresh  ourselves, 
and  from  which  we  issue  to  meet  the  new 
experiences  of  a  fresh  piece  of  the  road.  It 
is  well  that  an  Almighty  Hand  keeps  the  veil 
drawn,  so  that  we  cannot  tell  what  may 
befall  on  the  morrow.  Only  as  we  advance 
does  the  road  unfold.  *'  Now  are  we  the 
sons  of  God,  but  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what 
we  shall  be."  At  the  next  turn  of  the  road 
the  whole  secret   may  lie  outspread  like  a 

121 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

landscape  at  our  feet.  It  is  of  no  avail  to 
be  anxious.  Worry  will  not  alter  the  future 
by  a  single  hair.  The  best  preparation  for 
whatever  to-morrow  may  bring  is  to  do  well 
the  duty  of  the  present  hour.  But  what- 
ever is  hidden  beneath  that  gauzy  veil,  God  is 
there,  and  Love,  and  the  Golden  Age,  and 
the  faces  of  those  whom  we  have  loved  long 
since  and  lost  awhile. 


122 


VII 

OUR    SPENDING-MONEY 

We  will  suppose  that  we  are  about  to  travel 
on  the  Continent  of  Europe.  For  various 
reasons  we  are  unwilling  to  carry  any  con- 
siderable sum  of  money  on  our  person  or  in 
our  baggage.  But  we  arrange  with  one  of 
the  modern  tourist  agents,  who  has  agents 
in  every  part  of  the  world,  to  meet  our  re- 
quirements as  they  may  arise.  It  is  specially 
good  for  those  of  us,  who  may  not  possess 
an  abundance  of  ready  cash,  when  some 
wealthy  friend  steps  in  and  says  that  he  has 
calculated,  on  a  lavish  scale,  the  amount 
that  we  shall  probably  require,  and  has 
deposited  this  with  the  firm.  We  gladly 
start  on  our  journey,  knowing  that  at  each 
place  we  have  only  to  produce  our  demand, 
and  that  it  will  be  immediately  and  unques- 
tioningly  met. 

This  is  a  fair  analogy  and  may  be  applied 
to  the  demands  which  are  constantly  being 
made  on  us  by  the  emergencies  of  daily  life. 
Its  incidents,  crises,  and  catastrophes  have 
been  so  ordered  as  to  test  and  reveal  us  to 

123 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

the  uttermost.  The  telephone  bell  is  always 
ringing  in  our  soul,  summoning  us  to  answer 
some  inquiry,  or  to  take  up  some  fresh  case 
of  need.  How  are  these  calls  to  be  met  ?  It 
is  not  with  us,  as  with  a  vessel  bound  for  a 
long  winter  in  the  ice-closed  polar  seas,  which 
is  equipped  or  provisioned  for  a  prolonged 
struggle  with  the  elements  and  distance  from 
ports  of  call.  If  such  an  arrangement  were 
made  with  us,  it  would  probably  induce  a 
self-sufficing  complacency,  which,  in  its  turn, 
would  generate  an  intolerable  arrogance  and 
pride.  It  is  well,  then,  that  we  have  not  the 
capacity  to  contain  sufficient  supplies  for  our 
life-course,  even  if  they  could  be  made  over 
to  us  en  bloc.  There  are  abundant  supplies  ; 
but,  to  use  again  the  comparison  of  the 
Arctic  voyagers,  they  are  deposited  in  cairns, 
which  are  erected  along  the  march,  and 
which  contain  all  that  is  needed  to  equip  us 
for  all  kinds  of  emergency.  They  must  be 
received  and  appropriated  as  the  need  arises. 
*'  Day  by  day  the  manna  fell."  The  water- 
tanks  of  the  locomotive  engine  may  be  filled  in 
advance  before  the  journey  begins,  but  a  supply 
of  water  may  be  caught  up  in  transitu  from  the 
troughs  that  lie  between  the  metals,  over  which 
it  is  swiftly  passing.  The  latter  is  the  most 
appropriate  metaphor  for  our  experience. 

124 


Our  Spending-Money 

We  are  all  familiar,  of  course,  with  the 
atmosphere,  which  enswathes  and  environs 
us.  We  live  and  move  and  have  our  being 
in  it.  It  contains  various  elements,  some  of 
which  are  indispensable  to  human  life.  If 
they  should  be  eliminated  for  five  minutes  all 
round  our  earth,  every  living  creature  would 
instantly  cease  to  exist,  and  the  earth  would 
become  a  vast  sarcophagus.  We  are  con- 
stantly inhaling  the  atmosphere.  By  night 
and  day,  from  the  moment  of  birth,  the 
lungs,  by  automatic  action,  are  opening  and 
compressing,  to  receive  and  exhale  the  air 
on  which  human  life  depends.  Sometimes 
we  take  deeper  and  longer  inspirations  than 
ordinarily,  but  there  is  no  cessation  in  the 
process. 

But  the  close  contact  between  the  atmo- 
sphere of  the  physical  world  and  the  lungs 
is  not  so  close,  after  all,  as  the  subtle  prox- 
imity between  the  spiritual  atmosphere  and 
the  human  spirit,  when  once  it  has  become 
vitalised  and  quickened.  And  as  there  are 
stores  of  nutriment  for  the  physical  life  in  the 
natural,  so  are  there  in  the  spiritual,  but 
they  are  unavailing  unless  we  learn  to  make 
constant  use  of  them.  We  must  avail  our- 
selves of  that  spiritual,  ethereal,  and  in- 
effable environment  which  supplies  the  nutri- 

125 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

merit  and  vigour  of  the  religious  life.  Here 
is  the  fuel  of  the  inner  fire,  here  the  bread 
and  water  of  life.  ''  Our  spirits/'  said  the 
late  Mr.  W.  H.  Myers,  "  are  supported  by  a 
perpetual  indrawal  of  this  energy,  and  the 
measure  of  that  indrawal  is  constantly  alter- 
ing." 

One  of  the  strongest  characteristics  of  the 
primitive  Church  was  the  conviction,  based 
on  experience,  that  it  was  possible  for  those 
who  had  accepted  the  Christian  revelation 
to  receive  and  assimilate  a  new  quality  of  life, 
which  was  the  very  nature  of  the  risen  Christ, 
conveyed  to  the  human  spirit  by  the  Divine 
Spirit.  He  was  therefore  described  in  the 
Nicene  Creed  as  ''  the  Lord  and  Giver  of 
Life.*'  Christians  thus  formed  a  new  race, 
and  were  members  of  the  divine  family,  par- 
taking of  influences  and  energies  which  were 
unknown  to  other  men.  Their  elder  brother 
and  exemplar  was  the  exalted  Christ.  They 
felt,  interpenetrating  and  supporting  them, 
the  energy  of  a  new  life,  as  much  higher  than 
that  of  the  intellect  as  that  is  higher  than 
the  physical.  Eucken  describes  it  as  *'  the 
living  presence  of  an  eternal  and  spiritual 
energy.''  Jesus  described  it  as  '*  the  wind 
of  God,"  that  cometh  we  know  not  whence 
and  goeth  we  know  not  whither. 

126 


Our  Spending-Money 

The  beginning  of  Christianity  was,  in 
fact,  the  definite  emergence  of  a  new  type 
of  humanity.  Jesus  Christ,  by  what  He  was, 
what  He  taught,  and  what  He  has  become 
to  those  who  are  united  with  Him,  has 
brought  a  new  movement,  a  new  life,  a  new 
spirit  to  the  world.  He  has  lifted  millions 
to  a  new  level.  He  has  created  a  new  race. 
'*  We  may  assume,"  says  Harnack  most 
justly,  '*  what  position  we  will  in  regard  to 
Him  and  His  message  ;  certain  it  is  that 
from  His  time  and  onward  the  value  of  our 
race  has  been  enhanced.''  Let  us  beware, 
then,  of  pressing  too  far  our  analogy  between 
the  outward  atmosphere  and  the  spiritual 
environment  of  the  soul.  Whilst  the  former 
may  be  indicated  by  the  neuter  pronoun  it, 
the  latter  is  certainly  a  Presence,  a  Person, 
the  Presence  and  Nature  of  God,  as  radiat- 
ing from  Jesus  Christ,  and  communicated  to 
man  through  the  Divine  Paraclete,  the  Com- 
forter, the  Holy  Spirit. 

Jesus  Christ,  says  Paul  again  and  again, 
was  *'  a  fresh  creation,"  '*  the  second  Adam," 
''  the  First-born  among  many  brethren."  He 
was  not  only  significant  for  what  He  was  in 
Himself,  but  as  making  possible,  by  our 
sharing  in  His  mighty  dynamic,  that  forward 
leap  of  humanity  which  is  the  highest  stage 

127 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

in  human  development.  Paul  saw  that  the 
spirit  of  man  was  susceptible  to  this  dynamic. 
It  was  able,  as  he  puts  it,  to  receive  and 
appropriate  grace,  which  is  but  another  name 
for  the  inflowing  of  transcendental  vitality, 
with  all  the  wisdom,  strength,  and  love 
which  it  stands  for.  To  be  *'  in  Christ,'*  in 
Paul's  vocabulary,  meant  the  doing  away  of 
every  film  of  separation,  so  that  the  union  of 
the  human  spirit  with  that  Transcendent  Per- 
sonality might  be  unbroken  and  uninter- 
rupted. Paul's  one  effort  in  all  his  writing  is 
to  impress  on  his  readers  that  the  life  of  the 
eternal  God  is  ''  objectified,"  summed  up, 
concentrated,  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  pleased  the 
Father  that  in  Him  all  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead  should  dwell  in  an  objective  human 
form,  that  of  that  fulness  all  who  would 
might  receive. 

John  the  Divine,  also,  knows  himself  to 
be  a  partaker  of  that  divine  nature,  i.e.  a 
higher  kind  of  vitality  flowing  out  to  man 
through  the  Word  of  God,  and  passed  on  to 
man  by  *'  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth."  And 
the  raising  of  Tazarus  from  death  to  life  has 
been  truly  said  to  be  the  fitting  close  of 
John's  great  epic  of  the  soul.  The  Apostle 
had  shown  us  the  movement  of  the  spirit 
through    the    new    birth    into    the    spiritual 

128 


Our  Spending-Money 

world,  had  taught  us  how  to  draw  water  from 
the  wells  of  the  eternal,  and  to  eat  of  the 
hidden  manna,  and  finally  the  soul  is  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  Resurrection  and  the 
Life  to  draw  life  from  Him  after  such  a 
fashion  and  in  such  a  measure,  as  that  death 
itself  loses  its  power  over  the  emancipated 
nature. 

Now,  if  all  this  is  true,  and  it  is,  does  it 
not  become  more  and  more  evident  that  we 
must  learn  the  art  of  appropriating,  not 
simply  by  one  initial  act,  but  perpetually, 
the  very  elixir  of  our  religious  life  ?  We  must 
breathe  out  to  God  our  praise  and  adora- 
tion, our  prayer  and  supplication,  our  cries 
for  guidance  and  help  ;  but  it  is  equally 
needful  to  breathe  in  the  supplies  of  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  prayer  we  give 
God  thanks  for  His  great  goodness ;  but  we 
also  absorb,  receive,  inhale,  and  appropriate 
some  of  that  virtue  and  strength  which  are 
included  in  the  Life  which  was  with  the 
Father  and  was  manifested  to  the  world. 

The  various  experiences  of  human  life,  to 
which  we  have  referred  in  a  former  chapter, 
perform  their  highest  office  for  us,  when 
they  convince  us  of  our  helplessness,  and 
incline  us  to  avail  ourselves  of  those  spiritual 
resources  which  are  always  within  our  reach. 
J  129 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

The  fears  that  were  once  entertained  of  the 
approaching  failure  of  our  coal  supply  set 
science  to  work  to  discover  a  substitute  for 
producing  momentum  and  illumination.  How 
often  temptation,  trial,  and  the  failure  of 
human  sympathy  have  set  the  soul  on  a  quest 
which  has  finally  landed  it  on  God.  Well  is  it 
when  we  have  learnt  that  lesson  so  perfectly 
that  there  has  been  no  need  for  a  severer 
taskmaster  or  a  more  rigorous  discipline. 
In  God  men  can  find  a  complement  for  every 
deficiency  and  need. 

But  need  it  be  said  that  it  is  not  neces- 
sary for  obtaining  these  things,  that  we 
should  always  repair  to  our  closet,  shut  our 
door,  and  pray  on  our  bended  knee.  We  may 
obtain  them  by  the  instant  upreach  of  our 
faith,  by  the  opening  of  our  being,  by  what 
may  be  called  a  long,  deep,  spiritual  inhala- 
tion. This,  as  we  have  said,  is  not  the  whole 
of  prayer,  but  it  is  very  real  prayer.  It  can 
only  be  exercised  by  those  who  are  at  one 
with  the  nature  of  Christ,  and  are  accus- 
tomed to  more  definite  and  prolonged  periods 
of  devout  meditation,  adoration,  and  com- 
munion. 


All  along  the  way  of  our  life  there  are 

130 


Our  Spending-Money 

what  we  may  call  toll-gates  like  those  which 
used  to  arrest  us  in  many  parts  of  the 
country,  until  they  were  abolished.  There 
would  be  fine  work  with  those  motorists 
whose  one  idea  is  to  dash  madly  through  the 
country,  if  they  were  being  constantly  pulled 
up  and  made  to  pay  for  the  upkeep  of  the 
road  !  But  on  the  way  of  which  we  are  now 
treating  there  has  been  no  abolition  of  the 
toll-gates.  Indeed,  they  seem  rather  on  the 
increase  than  otherwise,  and  they  make  very 
costly  demands  on  the  spending-money  of 
the  soul. 

Your  servant  is  late  with  your  breakfast ; 
or  the  telephone  is  very  faint ;  or  there  is  a 
break  down  in  your  morning  train,  detaining 
you  for  a  precious  half-hour  ;  or  a  strike 
breaks  out  and  delays  the  building  of  your 
home,  or  the  ingathering  of  your  hay,  or 
the  sailing  of  your  ship.  It  is  very  stupid, 
very  provoking  ;  you  are  liable  to  nervous 
expenditure  and  exhaustion  which  threaten 
to  consume  the  delicate  network  of  your 
nervous  system.  Here  is  need  for  the  exer- 
cise of  patience  and  for  the  reinforcement  of 
such  patience  as  you  have  by  an  intake  of 
spiritual  energy. 

Or  you  have  to  meet  some  great  ordeal. 
It  is  an  operation  on  one  dearer  to  you  than 

131 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

life ;  or  the  necessity  of  detecting  and  deal- 
ing with  defalcations  and  unfaithfulness  which 
will  rupture  a  life-friendship  or  compel  you 
to  dismiss  an  old  and  valued  employe.  You 
may  have  to  sever  yourself  from  the  party 
with  which  you  have  been  wont  to  act  ;  to 
stand  alone  in  your  protest  against  an  ill- 
judged  war  ;  to  plough  a  lonely  furrow,  which 
will  expose  you  to  derision  and  hatred.  Per- 
haps it  will  be  necessary  to  confess  a  delin- 
quency, to  ask  forgiveness,  and  to  lay  your 
pride  in  the  dust.  Again  you  encounter  the 
toll-gate,  and  have  to  pay  its  demand  for 
courage.  Almost  certainly  that  will  mean 
more  than  your  own  resources  can  meet,  and 
again  there  must  be  a  reinforcement  of  your 
overtaxed  purse  by  an  intake  of  that 
spiritual  energy  which  shall  enable  you  to 
fulfil  your  difficult  duty. 

Or  you  may  be  suddenly  flung  into  a  fur- 
nace of  temptation  before  which  the  frail 
defences  of  your  soul  crackle  up  as  wood  before 
the  flame.  Your  blood  runs  fast  and  hot.  Is 
it  a  picture,  or  a  book,  or  a  suggestion,  or  a 
paragraph  in  a  newspaper  ?  You  feel  that  it 
is  absolutely  impossible  to  hold  out.  You  must 
consent :  your  will  and  choice  are  under  the 
sway  of  passion,  like  the  last  Monarch  of  France, 
at  the  mercy  of  the  crowd  which  thronged  the 

132 


Our  Spending-Money 

palace,  and  escorted  him  to  the  Bastille.  At 
such  a  time  you  are  again  at  a  toll-gate,  and 
now  a  strong  demand  is  made  for  a  measure 
of  self-control  of  which,  again,  you  are  not 
capable,  and  hard  will  be  your  plight  unless 
you  can  obtain  some  reinforcement. 

We  need  not  multiply  instances.  So  inces- 
sant and  so  inevitable  are  these  demands,  that 
none  of  us  escape  them,  and  most  of  us  are 
perpetually  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy,  as 
they  recur.  In  all  such  cases  we  are  in  urgent 
need  of  spending-money,  that  we  may  be  free 
to  pursue  our  journey. 

It  is  said  of  George  Macdonald,  that  when 
his  family  was  young,  he  adopted  the  following 
method  of  teaching  his  children  to  consider 
one  another.  At  the  beginning  of  every  week 
he  put  the  money  for  the  family  expenditure 
in  a  common  receptacle  which  was  accessible 
to  all  the  members  of  the  household.  Every- 
one knew  that  it  had  to  last  the  seven  days  ; 
and  everyone  was  at  liberty  to  take  what  was 
needed  for  his  or  her  use.  The  housekeeper 
must  go  there  for  the  provision  of  the  table  ; 
the  girl  for  her  dress ;  the  lad  for  his  books  ; 
the  father  for  his  journeying  ;  the  child  for  its 
toys.  But  it  was  obvious  that  if  any  helped 
themselves  unduly  and  extravagantly,  all  the 
others  would  go  short.    May  we  not  employ 

133 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

this  analogy  ?  Shall  we  not  say  that  the 
resources  of  the  Almighty  have  been  placed 
in  the  humanity  of  Christ,  within  reach  of  us 
all,  to  be  received  by  a  spiritual  telepathy, 
that  none  may  lack  anything  necessary  for 
a  noble  life ;  though  the  parallel  fails,  in  that 
there  is  no  limit  or  stint,  and  that  the  divine 
resources  are  not  diminished  by  the  heaviest 
drains  that  can  be  made  on  them  ?  Luther  may 
divert  a  vast  contingent  for  his  colossal  expen- 
diture, but  the  supply  still  brims  to  the  lips 
of  his  little  Gretchen. 

It  would  seem  as  though  the  variety  of 
Christ's  human  experiences,  now  that  His  man- 
hood is  wedded  with  the  eternal,  peculiarly 
fits  Him  to  succour  us  in  each  phase  of  experi- 
ence. Boys  can  make  their  appeal  to  His  boy- 
hood ;  young  men  to  the  strength  garnered 
in  His  temptation  ;  women  to  the  feminine 
and  sympathetic  aspect  of  His  nature  ;  suf- 
ferers to  His  endurance  of  pain  ;  the  poor  to 
His  experience  of  hunger,  thirst,  and  home- 
lessness  ;  the  lonely  to  His  memory  of  for- 
sakenness ;  the  weary  to  His  quick  recollec- 
tion of  the  sleep  in  the  boat  and  the  seat  by 
Sy char's  well.  Each  can  get  at  Christ  by  a 
gate  opening  directly  from  his  own  house  or 
grass-plat.  Christ  stands  four-square  to  the 
world's  need.  They  may  come  from  the  North 

134 


Our  Spending-Money 

of  Indigence,  or  the  South  of  Prosperity,  from 
the  East  of  Youth,  and  the  West  of  Age,  but 
they  are  all  welcome. 

Here  is  the  clue  for  the  understanding  of 
the   temptations  to   which   life   exposes  us. 
They  present  from  some  aspects  problems  of 
immense  perplexity.     One  would  have  sup- 
posed that  Divine  Love  would  have  removed 
every  stumbling-stone  from  the  way  of  our 
feet,  but  it  is  not  so.    Why  ?    Not  simply  that 
we  may  learn  the  art  of  resistance  and  refusal, 
though  this  is  much,  but  that  we  should  be 
compelled  to  discover  and  use  our  resources. 
Some  of  us  would  never  have  realised  what 
the  content  of  Christ  was,  unless  we  had  been 
hard  driven,  not  only  to  claim  His  help,  but 
to  appropriate  those  stores  of  grace  which  will 
enable  us  to  overcome  evil  with  good.   Let  that 
distinction  be  well  marked.    It  is  of  immense 
value  and  significance.    We  are  tempted  that 
we  may  learn  the   slenderness  of   our   own 
stores,  and  may  be  compelled,  like  the  man 
in  the  parable,  to  go  to  the  big  house  of  our 
rich  neighbour,  and  say :    ''  Friend,  lend  me 
three  loaves,  for  a  wayfaring  man  has  come 
to  me  on  his  journey,  and  I  have  nothing  to 
set  before  him.''    ''  Then  shall  He  from  within 
give  as  many  as  he  needeth." 

Probably,  the  existence  of  evil,  as  it  over- 

135 


/' 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

shadows  mankind  to-day,  is  due  to  these  two 
great  considerations.  First,  we  cannot  know 
a  thing  really  and  deeply,  unless  we  are 
acquainted  with  its  opposite.  Second,  we  shall 
never  properly  appreciate  or  claim  it,  until 
we  have  been  compelled  to  face  our  beggared 
exchequer.  You  may  live  next  door  to  a 
physician  for  long  years,  and  have  but  a  slight 
acquaintance.  You  watch  him  as  he  goes  and 
comes  ;  you  exchange  greetings  when  you 
meet  in  the  street ;  you  join  in  the  common 
respect  and  goodwill  of  your  neighbours.  But 
let  your  wife  or  child,  at  dead  of  night,  be 
stricken  by  mortal  pain,  and  immediately  that 
neighbour  of  yours  assumes  a  new  importance, 
and  you  suddenly  awake  to  appreciate  his 
resource,  gentleness  and  strength.  He  grapples 
with  the  foe  who  is  wrestling  with  the  beloved 
life  until  he  masters  him,  and  restores  to  you 
your  treasure.  You  never  forget  that  night ; 
and  it  gives  you  a  friend,  whom  you  have  been 
taught  by  your  extremity  to  understand. 
You  and  I  would  never  have  known  Christ, 
as  we  know  Him  now,  had  we  never  passed 
along  the  way  of  human  life.  We  have  lost 
many  things  in  our  journey.  They  have 
slipped  out  of  our  possession,  we  hardly  know 
how.  And  we  miss  them  sorely.  Sweet  faces 
gentle  presences,  heirlooms  of  the  past,  trea- 

136 


Our  Spending-Money 

sures  for  which  we  have  toiled.  It  is  as  though 
the  bandits  in  the  old  parable  have  been  pil- 
fering our  baggage,  and  appropriating  what 
we  could  least  have  spared,  and  leaving  us 
what  we  could  quite  well  have  surrendered. 
Nay,  it  is  not  bandits,  but  the  Hand  of  Divine 
Love  that  has  been  despoiling  you,  that  you 
may  seek  and  receive  all  back  again  from  Him. 

"  All  which  I  took  from  thee  I  did  but  take, 
Not  for  thy  harms, 
But  just  that  thou  might 'st  seek  it  in  my  arms. 
All  what  thy  child's  mistake 
Fancies  as  lost,  I  have  stored  for  thee  at  home  ; 
Rise,  clasp  my  hand,  and  come/' 

There  is  no  stint  in  the  divine  provision 
for  human  life.  If  there  is  scarcity,  it  is  be- 
cause we  have  not  trusted  the  Hand  that 
holds  out  its  boons ;  or  have  not  learnt  in 
the  moment  of  emergency  to  take  what  we 
required. 

How  greatly  do  thoughts  like  these  ennoble 
and  sublime  the  lowliest  life.  There  is  always 
at  work  an  interlacing  of  earth  and  heaven, 
of  the  human  with  the  divine,  of  the  things 
that  press  on  the  senses  and  those  which  eye 
hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  nor  the  heart  of 
man  conceived.  It  is  charming  to  watch  the 
games  of  gutter  children,  albeit  that  they  fill 

137 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

the  streets  with  chatter.  But  they  give  such 
evidence  of  possessing  the  ideahsing  facuKy. 
This  dirty  lane  is  a  pathway  through  Sher- 
wood Forest ;  that  Wind  alley  is  a  cave  where 
the  daring  Robin  Hood  and  his  merry  men  are 
lying  in  wait  for  unsuspecting  travellers  ;  that 
slatternly  girl  is  a  princess,  and  on  those  dirty 
little  wrists  are  matchless  jewels !  What 
imagination  does  for  the  waifs  and  strays  of 
our  streets  should  be  done  for  us  by  those 
spiritual  aptitudes  that  weave  the  golden 
threads  of  eternity  into  the  warp  of  very 
ordinary  existence. 

To  adapt  the  words  with  which  Thoreau 
concludes  his  rhapsody  on  Nature  :  ''  Money 
is  not  required  to  buy  one  necessity  of  the 
soul.*'  May  we  not  therefore  accept  his  advice 
to  go  and  live  our  life,  whatever  it  may  be, 
determined  that  in  it  there  shall  be  a  bridal 
of  the  earth  and  skies.  Life  may  be  mean  and 
hard  and  difficult.  Let  us  not  call  it  by  hard 
names.  The  fault-finder  would  find  faults  in 
Paradise  itself.  It  looks  poor  because  your 
heart  is  poor.  The  glories  of  the  sunshine  are 
lost  on  a  palace  if  all  its  living-rooms  face  the 
north,  whilst  a  cottage  facing  sunwards  is 
healthy,  sweet  and  glad.  Do  not  so  much 
trouble  to  alter  your  position — alter  yourself. 
It  is  not  that  God,  or  your  friends,  or  your 

138 


Our  Spending-Money 

circumstances  are  most  to  blame,  but  because 
you  have  no  heaven  above  you,  no  horizon 
before  you,  no  Jacob's  ladder  that  links  earth 
with  heaven.  If  you  are  deprived  of  the  out- 
ward circumstances,  in  which  so  many  find 
their  satisfaction,  it  is  that  you  may  be  com- 
pelled by  a  sweet  compulsion  to  turn  to  those 
simple,  holy,  and  soul-satisfying  realities 
which  moth  cannot  corrupt  and  thief  cannot 
steal.  *'  It  is  life  near  the  bone  that  is 
sweetest."  You,  at  least,  cannot  complain  of 
the  birdlime  which  keeps  you  from  soaring. 
The  poverty  of  their  tiny  holdings  on  the 
Scotch  hills  has  driven  many  a  crofter  to  the 
space,  and  opportunity,  and  wealth  of  lands 
which  to  his  fathers  were  only  an  unattainable 
dream. 


139 


VIII 

THE   COMPANIONS   OF   THE   WAY 

First,  there  is  the  Companionship  of  Christ, 
who  says  :  ''  Lo  !  I  am  with  you  all  the  days, 
even  unto  the  end  !  '*  The  way  looked  dark 
before  the  little  flock,  as  they  gathered  to- 
gether, for  apparently  the  last  time,  around 
Him  who  had  called  them  out  of  darkness  into 
marvellous  light,  but  whose  presence  was  now 
to  be  withdrawn.  It  broke  on  them,  therefore, 
like  a  peal  of  silver  bells,  the  assurance  that 
He  was  not  going,  but  was  to  be  more  inti- 
mately near  than  ever.  That  there  would  not 
be  one  day,  however  dark  and  painful,  which 
would  not  be  one  of  *'  the  days  of  the  Son  of 
Man,*'  was  good  news  indeed.  Like  a  splash 
of  colour  on  the  hillside,  this  sentence  lit  up 
all  the  dark  caverns  of  their  fear. 

Christ  has  been  with  the  objective  universe 
through  all  the  ages  of  its  becoming,  preparing 
it  as  the  platform  or  scaffolding  of  a  spiritual 
structure  which  shall  exceed  and  supersede 
it.  He  has  been  with  mankind  from  the  earliest 
inception  of  the  human  race,  through  all  its 
sorrowful  experiences,  its  wars  and  revolu- 

140 


The  Companions  of  the  Way 

tions,  its  bitter  disappointments,  and  agonies. 
These  things  had  to  be,  as  the  fever  and  pain 
which  accompany  the  cutting  of  a  child's 
teeth.  But  He  is  patiently  piloting  us  through 
these  experiences,  until  that  new  humanity 
shall  be  introduced  of  which  He  is  the  first- 
born and  glorious  specimen.  *'  For  the  creation 
waiteth  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of 
God.'*  He  has  been  with  His  Church,  chosen 
from  among  men  not  for  their  worthiness,  nor 
for  their  exclusive  benefit,  but  that  they  may 
help  in  the  development  of  His  purpose  of 
redemption.  The  pilgrimage  has  been  long  and 
weary,  but  He  has  accompanied  the  pilgrim- 
host,  step  by  step,  mile  by  mile,  through  the 
darkness  of  the  blackest  nights  and  the 
scorching  heat  of  the  most  trying  days.  Nor 
will  He  forsake  us,  until  we  reach  our  home. 

But  it  is  the  application  of  these  words  to 
our  individual  lives  that  claims  us  now.  Each 
of  us  has  to  tread  ''  the  way  "  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave  ;  and  there  is  not  a  stage  in  the 
path  that  does  not  need  the  presence,  com- 
panionship, guidance,  and  help  of  Him  who 
travels  beside  us  in  the  greatness  of  His 
strength. 

There  are  the  days  of  Childhood.  With 
uncertain  feet,  the  young  pilgrim  starts  on  his 
way,  the  whole  course  of  which  is  known  only 

141 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

to  Omniscience.  Childhood  was  ever  dear  to 
Him.  The  oHve-skinned  children  of  Palestine 
played  their  games  around  Him  as  He  sat  in 
the  market-place  to  watch  them.  They  lin- 
gered within  earshot  of  His  voice,  loved  His 
parables,  and  read  Him  with  intuitive  under- 
standing. Boys  would  trudge  for  miles,  with 
luncheons  of  barley  bread  and  cured  fish  in 
their  wallets,  that  they  might  assist  at  His 
great  conventions.  Boys  and  girls  filled  the 
temple  cloisters  and  the  city  streets  with 
their  songs  and  cries  when  their  favourite 
Rabbi  came  in  lowly  triumph.  At  any  moment 
some  wistful  boy  would  be  proud  to  be  sum- 
moned into  the  inner  circle  of  His  disciples  and 
become  the  text  and  illustration  of  His  dis- 
course. The  children  of  the  world  have  ever 
been  dear  to  God.  They  are  the  flowers  of 
which  the  rest  of  us  are  blades  of  grass.  One 
hundred  and  forty-four  thousand  are  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  harvest  of  humanity.  And  beside 
each  child  the  Great  Shepherd  passes,  as  it 
issues  through  the  Beautiful  Gate  of  Child- 
hood's Temple  to  enter  on  the  valleys  of  weep- 
ing, or  climb  the  happy  slopes  of  the  moun- 
tains of  joy. 

Adolescence  may  claim  the  same  compan 
ionship.    At  that  period  the  mind  awakens  to 
question  all  mysteries  ;   to  seek  for  whatever 

142 


The  Companions  of  the  Way- 
is  lovely  to  the  eye,  pleasing  to  the  ear,  and 
attractive  to  the  taste.  The  aurora  dawn  of  love 
fills  the  sky  with  warm  and  ruddy  colour.  The 
young  soul  is  passing  out  under  new  heavens, 
and  into  a  new  earth  of  experience.  It  is  as 
when  a  delayed  spring  suddenly  bursts  into 
summer.  But  the  paths  are  treacherous,  and 
the  boulders  slippery,  if  the  young  soul  essays 
to  tread  them  unaided.  There  is  no  fear  for 
it,  however,  when  once  it  welcomes  that  holy 
Presence,  and  submits  to  its  gentle  constraint. 
There  is  no  beauty,  truth,  or  love  in  the  world 
that  does  not  emanate  from  Christ.  He  is  the 
Word  of  God,  in  whom  these  qualities  abide 
eternally,  and  to  have  found  Him  is  not  only 
to  possess  them,  but  to  be  able  to  appreciate 
them. 

In  Early  Manhood  or  Womanhood,  we  stand 
in  a  vestibule,  out  of  which  doors  open  in  every 
direction,  and  it  is  perplexing  to  know  which 
of  them  to  choose.  To  have  Christ  beside  us 
is  to  be  saved  from  irreparable  mistake.  He 
is  wisdom  to  him  that  sitteth  in  judgment, 
and  strength  to  those  that  turn  the  battle  from 
the  gate.  He  is  more  to  us  than  Arthur  could 
have  been  to  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table. 
The  kingdom  which  He  asks  our  help  to  found 
shall  last  for  ever  ! 

The  temptation  of  Middle  Life  is  to  lose 

143 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

faith.  Our  skies,  once  ruddy  with  dawn,  have 
become  grey  ;  friends  have  proved  disappoint- 
ing ;  the  schemes  which  we  cherished  have 
miscarried ;  the  parties  with  which  we  co- 
operated have  shown  themselves  unsympa- 
thetic ;  we  begin  to  wonder  whether  we  have 
not  been  over-sensitive,  over-scrupulous,  and 
if  to  take  care  for  ourselves  is  not  the  best 
policy,  after  all !  At  such  times  the  companion- 
ship of  Christ  is  invaluable.  It  arrests  the 
paralysing  pessimism  which  has  begun  to  eat 
into  the  soul  of  our  goodness  and  the  energy 
of  our  resolve.  We  are  bidden  to  keep  watch 
with  Him  during  the  dark  night.  He  accosts  us 
as  His  companions  in  tribulation  and  patience. 
He  tells  us  that  He  has  overcome  the  world. 
He  calls  us  to  be  our  purest,  noblest,  and 
strongest.  And  as  we  watch  Him  and  find  that 
He  does  not  break  a  bruised  reed,  or  allow 
Himself  to  be  faint-hearted  or  discouraged,  we 
gird  up  the  loins  of  our  mind,  and  prepare  to 
stand  to  our  post  though  the  heavens  fall. 

In  Old  Age  the  same  Companionship  is  our 
very  present  help.  When  we  get  near  the  sun- 
down, we  are  apt  to  be  pursued  by  regrets  that 
life  has  amounted  to  so  little.  We  miss,  in 
growing  loneliness,  the  companions  and  asso- 
ciates of  earlier  years.  It  seems  as  though  the 
world  is  out  of  joint,  and  that  the  former  times 

144 


The  Companions  of  the  Way 

were  better  than  these.  Then  Christ  draws 
near,  and  chides  us  for  carrying  the  load  of 
these  wearing  anxieties.  He  tells  us  that  the 
government  is  on  His  shoulders,  and  that  He 
will  not  fail,  nor  be  discouraged,  till  He  has 
set  judgment  in  the  earth,  while  the  isles  wait 
for  His  law.  As  soon  as  we  have  this  assurance 
and  realise  that  the  keys  of  the  earth,  and  life, 
and  the  future,  are  at  His  girdle,  and  that  the 
responsibility  of  bringing  the  world  right  is 
His  business  and  not  ours,  the  peace  of  God 
returns  to  us.  We  ask  that  we  may  speedily 
see  the  consummation  of  His  plan  ;  but,  if  not, 
we  are  content  to  entrust  all  things  to  His 
omnipotent  hands.  This  is  our  only  prayer  : 
'*  Let  Thy  work  appear  unto  Thy  servants, 
and  Thy  glory  unto  their  children  ;  and  let 
the  beauty  of  the  Lord  our  God  be  upon 
us,  and  the  work  of  our  hands  establish 
Thou  it.'' 

In  one  of  his  essays,  Emerson  criticises  the 
Christian  Church  for  ''  dwelling  with  noxious 
exaggeration  on  the  person  of  Jesus.'*  He 
urges  that  the  emphasis  should  have  been  laid 
on  His  teaching,  and  its  appropriateness  to  all 
conditions  in  all  ages.  But,  in  the  first  place, 
the  teachings  of  Christ  are  so  inextricably  con- 
nected with  His  Person,  that  it  is  impossible 
to  disassociate  them.  He  is  perpetually  saying  : 

K  145 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

''  I  am  the  Light  of  the  world  *'  ;  ''I  am  the 
Good  Shepherd  ''  ;  ''  I  am  the  Way/'  And, 
in  the  second  place,  the  devout  and  penitent 
heart  is  conscious  that  the  constant  recogni- 
tion of  His  presence  is  not  the  figment  of  a 
fancy,  but  an  incomparably  valuable  asset  in 
the  working  forces  of  its  life.  They  who, 
through  faith,  have  been  permitted  to  enjoy 
it,  knew  that  to  forfeit  it  would  be  to  lose  the 
Sun  from  the  Heaven,  Heat  from  the  Fire,  and 
Love  from  the  Home. 

In  ''  Yeast,"  Charles  Kingsley  tells  how 
Nevarga,  dirty,  habit-stained,  morally  and 
spiritually  broken,  feeling  utterly  defiled, 
knelt  in  the  desert  by  a  furze-bush,  and  lifted 
up  his  heart  to  God,  and  cried  for  help.  Then 
he  rose  up  like  a  man  and  spoke  right  out  into 
the  dumb,  black  air,  and  said  :  '*  If  Thou  wilt 
be  my  God,  if  Thou  wilt  be  on  my  side,  good 
Lord,  who  died  for  me,  I  will  be  Thine,  villain 
as  I  am,  if  Thou  canst  make  anything  of  me  !  '* 
And  Kingsley  says  that  the  furze-bush  began 
to  glow  with  sacred  flame,  and  there  in  the 
desert  Jesus  Christ  found  a  new  companion 
and  made  a  new  friend. 

For  opening  manhood,  this  is  Christ's 
message  :  *'  Behold,  I  am  with  thee,  and  will 
keep  thee  whithersoever  thou  goest,  and  will 
bring  thee  again  into  this  land  ;   for  I  will  not 

146 


The  Companions  of  the  Way 

leave  thee,  until  I  have  done  that  which  I  have 
spoken  to  thee  of/' 

This  for  the  close  of  life's  pilgrimage  : — 
*'  The  God  before  whom  my  fathers,  Abraham 
and  Isaac,  did  walk,  the  God  which  hath  fed 
me  all  my  life  long  unto  this  day,  the  angel 
which  hath  redeemed  me  from  all  evil,  bless 
the  lads/' 

But  this  is  not  all.  When  speaking  with 
Nathanael,  the  Master  said  that  he  was 
entering  an  age  in  which  heaven  would  be 
open  and  angels  would  ascend  and  descend 
upon  the  Son  of  Man.  Obviously,  He  was 
referring  to  the  ladder  that  knit  the  poor 
moorland,  where  Jacob  lay,  with  the  highest 
heaven.  The  fugitive  learnt  on  that  night 
that  no  human  being  is  so  mean  or  so  forlorn, 
but  that  God  is  willing  to  keep  open  com- 
munications with  him,  receiving  the  angels 
of  his  prayers  and  tears,  and  responding  by 
commissioning  His  angels  with  divine  guid- 
ance and  help.  In  the  case  of  Nathanael, 
his  meditations  and  prayers  beneath  the  fig 
tree  were  the  angels  that  ascended,  whilst 
the  good  Philip,  hastening  to  him  with  the 
tidings  of  the  Christ,  was  one  at  least  of  the 
angels  whom  God  sent  in  reply.  That  ladder 
still  stands  beside  us  when  we  kneel  in 
prayer,  whether  with  Paul  in  the  prison  or 

147 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

Jonah  in  the  hold  of  the  merchantman,  or 
Peter  on  the  roof  of  the  tanner's  house. 
There  is  no  place  from  which  the  angels  may 
not  go  up,  and  to  which  they  may  not 
descend. 

Obviously  that  ladder  represented  the  dual 
nature  of  Christ,  which  unites  our  earthliness 
with  the  heavenly  and  eternal  world.  Let 
us  exchange  the  figure  from  a  ladder  to  a 
bridge,  as  was  the  habit  of  mediaeval  saints. 
Christ  bridges  the  gulf  between  earth  and 
heaven  ;  and  it  may  be  that  as  our  prayers 
cross  that  bridge  from  this  side,  holy  beings 
come  to  help  us  from  the  other : — 

"  O  weary  ones  !    ye  may  not  see 

Your  helpers  in  their  downward  flight ; 

Nor  hear  the  sound  of  silver  wings, 
Slow  beating  through  the  hush  of  night ! 

There  are,  who,  like  the  seer  of  old, 
Can  see  the  helpers  God  has  sent, 
And  how  life's  rugged  mountain  side 

Is  white  with  many  an  angel-tent." 

The  Scriptures  make  frequent  reference  to 
the  ministering  spirits  who  are  sent  forth  to 
minister  to  the  heirs  of  salvation  ;  and  it 
may  even  be  that  whilst  we  send  messages 
through  our  Lord  to  those  whom  we  have 
loved  and  lost  awhile,  trusting  Him  to  give 
or  withhold  them  as  He  deems  best,  so  some- 

148 


The  Companions  of  the  Way 

times  He  entrusts  some  healing,  helpful,  and 
delightful  ministry  to  those  who  find  a  deeper 
bliss  than  even  Heaven  could  yield  them  in 
helping  us  to  thread  our  way  through  menac- 
ing difficulties,  to  mount  up  with  wings,  to 
run  without  being  weary,  to  walk  without 
being  faint.    We  must  note  carefully  that  such 
ministry  is  only  in   union   with   the  Son  of 
Man.     Our  prayers  ascend  and  God's  answers 
return   only   upon   the   ladder   or   bridge   of 
His  mediatorial  nature.     We  have  no  right 
to  speak  to  or  command  the  inhabitants  of 
the  other  world  in  a  direct  or  authoritative 
manner.     To  attempt  this  would  be  to  fall 
into    error ;     but    when   the    communion   of 
saints  is  strictly  limited  to  the  mediation  of 
our  Lord,  we  need  not  dread  the  intrusion 
of  error.     ''  Ye  are  come  to  the  spirits  of  the 
just  made  perfect,  and  to  Jesus  the  Mediator." 
We  are   traversing  our   mortal  career  in 
the   presence   of   a   great   multitude   of   wit- 
nesses,  whose  faces  look   down   on  us,   like 
the  cherub-faces  in  Tint  ore  tti's  pictures,  which 
in  the  distance  seem  like  a  golden  cloud  of 
glory  and  beauty.     And  if  Jesus  should  some- 
times bid  one  of  them  step  down  from  the 
spectators'  seats  to  accompany  us  for  a  few 
steps  of  our  way,  who  shall  complain  ?     In 
any  case,  we  are  escorted  by  bands  of  angels, 

149 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

to  whom  He  has  given  charge  that  they 
should  bear  us  up  and  keep  us  from  dashing 
our  foot  against  a  stone. 

Let  this  figure  of  Christ  as  the  Bridge 
comfort  us.  Earth  is  now  an  annexe  of 
heaven.  No  need  of  the  old  ferry-boat.  We 
can  cross  dry-shod.  That  bridge  of  Christ's 
Divine  Humanity  which  has  made  this  great 
alteration  is  composed  of  eight  arches  or 
piers,  which  may  be  designated  as  follows  : 
His  Birth ;  His  Baptism,  when  first  He 
realised  the  full  glory  of  His  divine  nature  ; 
His  Temptation,  when  He  deliberately  chose 
not  to  use  an  ounce  weight  of  power  for 
Himself  ;  His  Transfiguration,  when  He  defi- 
nitely turned  His  face  to  the  Cross  ;  Geth- 
semane,  when  He  united  Himself  more  closely 
than  ever  before,  as  man,  with  the  will  of 
God  ;  Calvary,  when  the  At-one-ment  was 
completed ;  the  opened  Grave,  on  Easter 
morning,  whence  He  arose,  the  first  of  a  new 
and  glorious  race  ;  and  the  Ascension,  when 
He  entered  the  Presence  of  the  Father  in 
our  nature.  This  Bridge  can  never  be  closed 
for  repairs,  or  swept  away  by  storm.  Our 
desires  and  prayers  need  pay  no  toll  in  cross- 
ing it  ;  and  however  weighty  the  divine 
reinforcements  to  us,  not  a  stone  will  start 
from  its  place. 

150 


IX 

RESTING-PLACES 

Life  is  not  all  climbing,  fighting,  toiling. 
There  are  sweet  vales  nestling  among  the 
gaunt  hills,  which  invite  us  to  come  apart 
and  rest  awhile.  In  the  darkest  day  there 
are  some  chinks  of  blue.  On  the  steepest 
hills  there  are  some  level  places.  No  life  is 
without  its  pause,  its  landings,  its  interspaces 
of  rest. 

First  among  these  let  us  put  Nature.  ''  If 
any  of  my  readers,''  says  Nathaniel  Haw- 
thorne, *'  should  decide  to  give  up  civilized 
life,  cities,  houses,  and  whatever  moral  or 
material  enormities  in  addition  to  these  the 
perverted  ingenuity  of  our  race  has  contrived, 
then  let  it  be  in  the  early  autumn.  Then 
Nature  will  love  him  better  than  at  any  other 
season,  and  will  take  him  to  her  bosom  with 
a  more  motherly  tenderness."  We  will  not 
dispute  with  Hawthorne  in  his  choice  of  the 
autumn  for  the  time  of  wooing  or  being 
wooed  ;  perhaps  one  would  prefer  the  precise 
time  when  the  later  spring  is  merging  in  the 
early  summer.     But,  speaking  generally,  what 

151 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

comfort,  next  to  God's,  is  so  wholly  satisfy- 
ing as  Nature's  ?  How  often  has  one  thrown 
oneself  on  the  sweet-smelling  earth,  when 
wearied  with  the  clash  of  arms  and  the 
ceaseless  conflict,  saying,  ''  Oh  mother,  dear 
mother,  thy  tired  child  comes  to  thy  bosom 
for  rest.  Thou  hast  fondled  and  caressed 
millions  of  thy  sons,  but  thou  art  as  fresh 
and  young  and  unworn  to-day  as  though 
thou  hadst  only  yesterday  emerged  from  the 
Father's  Home,  where  thou  wast  daily  His 
delight." 

We  think  of  old  Izaak  Walton  sitting  on 
his  primrose  banks,  hearing  his  birds  sing, 
looking  down  the  meadows  and  thinking  of 
them  as  *'  Charles  the  Emperor  did  of  the 
city  of  Florence,  that  they  were  too  pleasant 
to  be  looked  on,  but  only  on  holidays "  ; 
watching  ''  here  a  boy  gathering  lilies  and 
lady-smocks,  and  there  a  girl  cropping  culver- 
keys  and  cowslips,  all  to  make  garlands  suit- 
able to  this  present  month  of  May."  We 
think,  too,  of  Wordsworth,  '*  the  minstrel 
of  the  natural  year,"  taking  possession  of 
his  Westmorland  mountains  as  by  right  of 
birth,  that  he  might  there  exercise  his  voca- 
tion, and  translate  the  language  in  which 
Nature  spoke  to  him  into  the  tongue  of  ordi- 
nary folk.     We  think  especially  of  Thoreau, 

152 


Resting-Places 

as  he  reveals  himself  in  his  charming 
"  Walden/' 

We  try  to  imagine  the  latter,  building  his 
little  cabin  beside  the  lakelet — ''  a  pure  white 
crystal  in  a  setting  of  emerald,"  a  perfect 
forest  mirror.  We  smell  again,  as  he  de- 
scribes it,  the  pungent  perfume  of  the  sur- 
rounding pines,  and  bathe  ourselves  in  the 
golden  sunlight,  in  which  he  would  sit  from 
sunrise  to  noon,  "  growing,''  as  he  says, 
*'  like  corn  in  the  night."  It  is  an  irresistible 
impulse  to  record  a  snatch  from  one  para- 
graph which  breathes  that  spirit  of  calm  rest- 
fulness  that  Nature  gives  :  ''  Every  morning 
was  a  cheerful  invitation  to  make  my  life  of 
equal  simplicity,  and  I  may  say  innocence, 
with  Nature  herself.  I  have  been  as  sincere 
a  worshipper  of  Aurora  as  the  Greeks.  I 
got  up  early  and  bathed  in  the  pond ;  that 
was  a  religious  exercise,  and  one  of  the  best 
things  that  I  did.  Morning  brings  back  the 
heroic  age.  I  was  as  much  affected  by  the 
faint  hum  of  a  mosquito  making  its  invisible 
and  unimaginable  tour  through  my  apart- 
ment at  earliest  dawn,  when  I  was  sitting 
with  my  doors  and  windows  open,  as  I 
could  by  any  trumpet  that  ever  sang  of 
fame.   ..." 

Of  Thoreau,  Emerson  said  that  he  saw 

153 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

as  with  a  microscope,  heard  as  with  an  ear- 
trumpet,  and  his  memory  was  a  photographic 
register  of  all  he  saw  and  heard.  "  As  we 
read  him,"  says  Lowell,  "  it  seems  to  us  as 
if  all  out-of-doors  had  kept  a  diary  and  be- 
come its  own  Montague  ;  we  look  at  the 
landscape  as  in  a  Claude  Lorraine  glass; 
compared  with  his,  all  books  of  similar  aim 
seem  dry  as  a  country  clergyman's  meteoro- 
logical almanac."  But  this  love  of  Nature 
arose  not  only  from  hereditary  endowment, 
but  from  his  possession  of  a  nature  which 
was  singularly  able  to  detach  itself  from 
the  world  of  men,  and  bring  its  native  sim- 
plicity in  contact  with  God's  own  fair  world. 
That  latter  qualification  is  open  to  us  all. 
Detachment,  purity,  simplicity,  childlikeness, 
the  religious  soul,  these  are  the  conditions 
of  appreciating  and  loving  Nature,  as  she 
has  been  courted  and  won  by  thousands  who 
have  never  recorded  their  impressions  in 
eloquent  and  burning  phrase.  Nature  knows 
her  lovers,  and  does  not  hesitate  to  unveil 
her  face  to  them.  Children  will  always  dis- 
cover those  who  are  akin  to  their  fresh,  un- 
sophisticated natures.  Even  dogs  and  birds, 
squirrels  and  hares,  discover  their  lovers. 
The  brook  sings  its  sweetest  for  the  ear  that 
is  willing  to  listen  and  appreciate.    The  woods 

154 


Resting-Places 

open  new  glades  for  the  devotees  who,  tear- 
ing themselves  from  other  loves,  will  give 
an  undivided  heart  to  their  spell.  Let  us 
tear  ourselves  from  men  and  things,  from 
the  clash  of  politics  and  the  strife  of  com- 
petition, and  let  that  music  fill  our  souls 
which  Nature  makes  in  sylvan  glades  and 
beside  the  tiny  rills  that  drop  from  level  to 
level  in  the  woodlands.  What  Nature  has 
been  to  the  writer  of  these  lines  he  will  never 
be  able  to  explain,  because  ecstasies  have 
seized  on  him  in  mountain  solitudes  and  in 
forest  glades  which  it  is  not  lawful  to  attempt 
to  describe.  It  is  well  enough  to  hunt  for 
specimens,  or  carry  pocket  microscopes,  or 
get  snapshots,  but  at  the  best  these  appeal 
to  the  observing  and  intellectual  faculties, 
whereas  there  is  a  communion  of  heart  to 
heart,  which  lovers  know,  and  which  defies 
art  and  speech. 

Let  us  get  away  from  the  madding  crowd, 
as  He  did  whose  heart  was  so  sensitive  to 
every  voice  and  touch  of  Nature,  and  who 
was  so  careful  to  adapt  the  natural  scenery 
to  his  experiences,  choosing  the  mountain 
for  his  temptation,  the  seashore  for  His 
teaching,  the  winepress  for  His  agony,  and 
the  garden  for  His  Easter. 

Our  Lord's  sensitiveness  to  Nature  has 

155 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

been  termed  ''the  most  charming  aspect  of 
His  humanity/'  He  watched  the  tall  and 
splendid  lily — not,  like  ours,  white,  but  crim- 
son— the  reed  quivering  in  the  wind,  the  tender 
green  of  the  first  shoot  of  the  fig  tree.  He 
built  His  teaching  on  the  fold,  the  farm,  the 
vineyard,  and  the  whitening  cornfields.  The 
living  well,  the  eastern  glow,  the  ruddy  hue 
of  the  stormy  evening,  the  spate  of  the  winter 
storm,  and  the  homeward  flight  of  the  birds 
from  their  feeding-grounds  were  objects  of 
careful  observation  and  enjoyment.  We  like 
to  think  of  Him  loving  the  gorse  and  heather 
of  the  wild  mountain,  listening  to  the  mur- 
mur of  the  waters  down  the  hillsides,  and 
scaling  the  higher  reaches  of  the  lonely  hills 
that  He  might  absorb  the  '^  beauty  of  the 
far-spread  landscape.  To  rest  awhile  amid 
the  fairest  scenes  of  natural  beauty  was  His 
choicest  recreation  ;  and  when  He  felt  the 
Transfiguration  glory  coming  on  Him,  He 
sought  the  moonlit  slopes  of  Hermon.  We 
are  following  His  great  example  when  we 
make  much  of  those  quiet  resting-places  that 
Nature  provides. 

It  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  make  one 
further  addition  to  the  restfulness  which 
Nature  may  secure  for  tired  hearts  and 
brains,  and  to  refer  to  the  effect  that  friend- 

156 


Resting-Places 

ship  with  the  lower  animals,  as  we  term 
them,  may  bring  us.  We  recall  the  Apostle 
John  and  his  domesticated  pet,  Cowper  and 
his  hares.  Dr.  John  Brown  in  '' Rab  and  His 
Friends,**  and  Thoreau  with  his  forest  com- 
panions. Take  the  two  latter.  The  forest 
recluse  lovingly  records  the  mouse  that  sat 
on  his  hand,  the  partridge  who  brought  him 
her  brood,  the  moles  who  nested  in  his  cellar, 
the  red  squirrels  who  made  free  of  his  corn 
which  they  ate  before  his  face,  the  hares  that 
came  to  his  door  at  dusk  ;  whilst  the  doctor 
writes  graphically  of  his  dogs — the  white  bull- 
terrier,  the  shepherd's  dog,  and  the  old,  grey, 
brindled  mastiff,  as  big  as  a  small  Highland 
bull,  with  Shakesperean  dewlaps,  who  always 
reminded  the  doctor  of  the  great  Baptist 
preacher,  Andrew  Fuller. 

It  is  refreshing,  also,  to  read  in  one  of 
Canon  Jessopp's  delightful  books  his  dis- 
quisitions on  moles  and  tortoises.  He  tells  a 
delightful  story  of  a  tame  tortoise,  David, 
who  not  only  came  when  his  name  was  called, 
but  exhibited  something  like  personal  attach- 
ment for  his  mistress,  wandering  into  her 
drawing-room,  climbing  over  the  sill  of  the 
French  windows,  and  finding  his  way  to  her 
feet. 

Nothing  could  be  further  from  our  desire 

157 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

than  to  extol  that  excessive  and  culpable 
fondness  which  heaps  upon  dogs  and  cats 
an  altogether  extravagant,  fastidious,  and 
prodigal  affection,  bestowing  on  them  a 
quite  disproportionate  attention,  and  ex- 
pending on  them  what  would  suffice  to 
redeem  many  a  crippled  existence  from  the 
direst  need.  But  there  are  opportunities  of 
delightful  intercourse  between  us  and  the 
dumb  companions  of  our  earthly  sojourn, 
which  need  not  incur  reproach.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  altogether  commendable.  Mr. 
John  Galsworthy,  in  an  eloquent  plea  on  the 
part  of  dogs  the  other  day,  spoke  of  some 
amongst  us  who  are  ''  honoured  '*  by  the 
friendship  of  the  lower  orders  of  creation. 
The  phrase  is  happily  chosen.  We  are  not 
all  worthy  of  that  honour  ;  but  where  it  is 
bestowed,  it  is  exceedingly  precious  and  valu- 
able, and  a  great  asset  among  the  contribu- 
tories  to  our  refreshment  and  exhilaration. 

The  Christian  mystics  have  always  had 
this  absorbing  love  for  Nature.  George  Fox 
said  that  ''  all  creation  gave  another  smell 
beyond  what  words  can  utter.''  Brother 
Lawrence  received  from  the  leafless  tree  **  a 
high  view  of  the  providence  and  power  of 
God."  And  it  is  thus  written  of  Francis  of 
Assisi :   *'  As  of  old,  the  three  children  placed 

158 


Resting-Places 

in  the  burning  fiery  furnace  invited  all  the 
elements  to  praise  and  glorify  God,  so  this  man 
also,  full  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  ceased  not  to 
glorify,  praise,  and  bless  in  all  creatures  the 
Creator  and  Governor  of  them  all.  When  he 
came  to  a  great  quantity  of  flowers  he  would 
preach  to  them,  and  invite  them  to  praise  the 
Lord,  just  as  if  they  had  been  gifted  with 
reason.  So,  also,  cornfields  and  vineyards, 
stones,  woods,  and  all  the  beauties  of  the  fields, 
fountains  of  waters,  all  the  verdure  of  gardens, 
earth  and  fire,  air  and  wind,  would  he,  with 
sincerest  purity,  exhort  to  the  love  and  willing 
service  of  God.  In  short,  he  called  all  creatures 
by  the  name  of  brother  ;  and  in  a  surpassing 
manner,  of  which  other  men  had  no  experience, 
he  discerned  the  hidden  things  of  creation  with 
the  eye  of  the  heart,  as  one  who  had  already 
escaped  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  chil- 
dren of  God." 

4c  :fe  4e  ♦  ♦ 

The  Rest  Day  is,  of  course,  another  of  these 
quiet  resting-places  on  life's  highway.  Alas  ! 
Of  late  years,  its  rest  has  been  seriously 
threatened,  and  is  being  threatened.  The 
attack  comes  from  two  sides.  The  first  is  from 
the  invasion  of  the  motor-car,  and  the  craze 
of  the  week-end  habit.  One  of  the  daily  papers 

159 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

remarked  the  other  day  that  the  motor-car 
had  taken  the  place  of  the  old  family  pew. 
The  head  of  many  a  household  in  the  present 
day  will  assemble  his  wife  and  children  on 
Sunday  morning  for  a  run  into  the  country 
with  the  same  regularity  as  that  with  which 
his  father  used  to  summon  them  to  church. 
In  many  cases,  instead  of  spending  with  their 
young  children  the  one  day  when  father  and 
mother  could  be  at  home  with  them,  they  are 
left  to  their  nurses,  who  may  be  quite  un- 
worthy of  the  trust.  Even  now,  the  writer  of 
these  words  can  recall  the  absolute  desolation 
and  misery  of  those  very  rare  Sundays  when 
his  parents  were  necessarily  absent  from  the 
home  ;  and  what  would  have  been  the  fate 
of  the  family  life,  to  which,  under  God's  bless- 
ing, he  owes  everything,  had  these  modern 
habits  been  in  vogue,  he  dare  not  surmise. 

But  from  the  other  side,  the  Sunday  is 
threatened  by  the  decay  of  conventional  reli- 
gion. The  time  is  not  so  very  far  distant  when 
every  respectable  person  was  expected  to  go 
to  a  place  of  worship  on  Sunday.  That  any 
self-respecting  people  should  go  golfing  on 
Sunday  morning,  or  be  seen  starting  for  a 
party  on  the  river,  was  unheard  of.  But  all 
this  is  altered  now,  to  the  great  detriment  of 
society,  which  has  surrendered  one  more  of 

160 


Resting-Places 

those  sacred  habits  which  did  so  much  for  the 
morahty  of  the  elder,  and  the  proper  training 
of  the  younger,  members  of  our  famiHes. 

We  freely  grant  that,  like  other  religious 
institutions,  it  has  been  perverted.  To  many 
it  was  irksome  and  tiresome,  a  day  of  heavy 
burdens  and  unnatural  restraint.  One  ex- 
ample was  brought  under  my  notice  of  the 
father  of  a  family,  who  was  so  fearful  of  doing 
wrong,  that  he  and  his  children  used  to  sit  in 
their  chairs,  doing  nothing  whatever  during 
the  hours  of  the  day  in  which  they  were  not 
attending  divine  service.  We  are  all  famihar 
also  with  stories,  not  wholly  unfounded,  of  the 
prohibition  of  hot  shaving-water,  and  the 
delivery  of  milk.  But  these  are  the  exceptions. 
For  myriads,  through  the  centuries  the  return 
of  the  Rest  Day  has  been  fraught  with  untold 
benediction  to  our  toiling  masses,  and  to 
myriads  of  Christians,  who,  on  that  day,  have 
entered  into  the  very  rest  of  God. 

The  law  of  septennial  periodicity  is  written 
on  most  of  the  pages  of  natural  history.  Ex- 
periments on  human  and  animal  subjects  yield 
similar  results,  and  always  establish  the  neces- 
sity of  giving  a  seventh  part  of  our  time  to  rest, 
in  addition  to  our  nightly  sleep.  It  is  almost  a 
commonplace  to  recall  the  experiment  made  at 
the  French  Revolution,  when  the  Anarchists, 

L  l6l 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

in  their  desire  to  expunge  all  trace  of  religion, 
decided  that  the  week  should  consist  of  ten 
days,  but  found  it  necessary  to  return  to  the 
older  reckoning,  because  the  nation  could  not 
endure  the  prolonged  strain  between  the  rest 
days.  It  is  well  known  that  the  proprietor 
who  rests  his  horses  and  cattle  on  one  day  in 
the  week  will  get  more  work  out  of  them  than 
he  who  keeps  them  at  work  without  the 
seventh-day  intermission.  Though  the  same 
number  of  hours  be  worked  in  the  week  in 
each  case,  it  is  better  that  thev  should  be 
concentrated  in  six  days,  followed  by  one  for 
rest.  Deep  in  the  constitution  of  the  universe 
is  engraved  the  law  of  rest.  Because  it  is  there, 
it  is  obligatory  on  us  all.  We  neglect  it  at  our 
peril.  You  cannot  set  yourself  against  the 
nature  of  things,  and  prosper.  An  inevitable 
Nemesis  will  find  you  out.  The  Rest  Day  is 
placed  on  a  level  with  the  other  obligations  of 
the  moral  law,  from  which  we  infer  that  its 
basis  is  to  be  found  in  the  very  being  of  God, 
and  of  man,  made  in  His  image.  The  increase 
of  nervous  disorders,  and  the  multiplication  of 
lunatic  asylums,  are  probably  directly  trace- 
able to  the  disregard  of  the  weekly  Rest 
Day. 

The  late  Mr.  Gladstone  was  specially  care- 
ful in  this  matter.     Anyone  entering  his  room 

162 


Resting-Places 

in  Downing  Street,  during  his  tenure  of  the 
Premiership,  would  find  that  the  ordinary 
books  and  periodicals  of  every-day  use  were 
replaced  by  others  in  keeping  with  the  Sunday. 
On  a  Sunday  evening,  he  writes  to  Mrs.  Glad- 
stone :  ''  Although  I  have  carelessly  left  at 
the  Board  of  Trade,  with  other  letters,  that 
on  which  I  wished  to  say  something,  yet  I  am 
going  to  end  this  day  of  peace  by  a  few  words 
to  show  that  what  you  said  did  not  lightly  pass 
away  from  my  mind."  I  have  italicised  the 
incidental  phrase,  which  indicates  more  swiftly 
and  emphatically  than  a  more  laboured  argu- 
ment could  do  the  light  in  which  the  great 
Christian  Statesman  regarded  the  day.  And, 
once  more,  among  other  suggestions,  to  one  of 
his  sons,  then  at  Oxford,  he  wrote  the  follow- 
ing, which  Lord  Morley  says  was  *'  the  actual 
description  of  his  own  lifelong  habit  and  un- 
broken practice  ''  :  ''  There  arises  an  impor- 
tant question  about  Sundays.  Though  we 
should,  to  the  best  of  our  power,  avoid  secular 
work  on  Sundays,  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
mind  should  remain  idle.  There  is  an  immense 
field  of  knowledge  connected  with  religion,  and 
much  of  it  is  of  a  kind  that  will  be  of  use  in 
relation  to  your  general  studies.  In  these  days 
of  shallow  scepticism,  so  widely  spread,  it  is 
more  than  ever  to  be  desired  that  we  should 

163 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

be  able  to  give  a  reason  for  the  hope  that  is 


in  us/' 


Parents  should  tax  their  ingenuity  to  make 
the  Rest  Day  the  most  delightful  of  the  week. 
Sacred  music,  good  literature  of  the  highest 
quality,  the  family-fellowship,  the  wholesome 
walk  in  the  country,  attendance  at  Divine 
Service,  and  the  culture  of  the  inner  life,  ought 
to  be  sufficient  to  provide  a  pleasant  menu  for 
the  day's  consumption,  without  resorting  to 
the  railway  excursion,  or  the  festive  gathering, 
which  leave  the  soul  jaded  and  hungry,  be- 
sides having  entailed  needless  labour  on  those 
who  serve  us,  and  who  deserve  our  considera- 
tion. I  can  imagine  a  father  who  had  a  distinct 
leaning  to  some  special  line  of  study  always 
reserving  Sunday  afternoon  for  the  wonders 
of  the  microscope,  for  directing  the  arrange- 
ment of  botanical  specimens,  or  for  discussing 
the  fossils  of  a  prehistoric  age.  What  oppor- 
tunities might  not  such  an  afternoon  afford 
of  driving  home  lessons  on  the  traces  of  crea- 
tive design  and  adaptation !  Or  if  he  were 
specially  interested  in  biography,  history,  or 
geography,  what  vistas  each  of  these  would 
open  !  Or,  when  some  great  events  were  trans- 
acting on  the  theatre  of  the  world,  or  wars 
being  fought  to  their  issue,  how  much  might 
be  done  by  suggesting  the  principles  on  which 

164 


Resting-Places 

to  found  right  conclusions.  To  look  out  for 
the  footsteps  of  God  through  our  own  age  is 
a  wholesome  and  elevating  pursuit ;  and  Sun- 
days spent  quietly  thus  in  the  companionship 
of  one's  family,  or  like-minded  folk,  will  leave 
us  more  really  rested  than  a  long  and  tiring 
day  of  pleasure-seeking. 


Another  of  these  resting-places  is  in  the 
understanding  and  confidence  of  Human  A  Sec- 
tion. In  Friendship  the  wearied,  hunted  soul 
finds  a  shelter  from  the  windy  storm  and  tem- 
pest. From  the  pitiless  criticism  of  those  who 
have  the  shallowest  possible  acquaintance  with 
the  sincerity  and  purity  of  our  motives,  we 
turn  to  our  familiar  friends ;  they,  at  least,  will 
put  the  right  construction  on  our  actions,  and 
will  give  us  as  much  credit,  and  more,  as  we 
give  ourselves  for  all  that  is  high-minded  and 
holy.  *'  A  friend  loveth  at  all  times,  and  is 
born  as  a  brother  for  adversity.''  In  his  happy- 
making  presence  we  can  relax  ourselves,  and 
be  absolutely  free  and  natural.  The  outer  coat 
of  self-repression  in  which  we  face  the  driving 
ice-cold  blast  of  the  world  may  be  cast  off, 
and  we  can  assume  another  suit — that  of 
tenderness,  freedom  of  speech,  and  gaiety  of 
mood.   We  must  choose  as  friends  those  who, 

i6^ 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

in  regard  to  religious  matters  at  least,  think 
as  we  do.  There  must  be  a  point  of  contact, 
where  heart  absolutely  and  sincerely  meets 
heart.  If  we  do  not  revolve  around  the  same 
pivot,  the  circling  interests  of  life  cannot  be 
concentric.  Do  not  give  yourself  in  intimate 
fellowship  to  those  who  cannot  sympathise 
with  you  in  your  holiest  aspirations,  and  to 
whom  you  could  not  naturally  and  easily  unfold 
your  acutest  pain.  It  should,  surely,  be  the 
subject  of  daily  prayer  to  the  Almighty  Father 
that  He  would  put  the  solitary  into  families, 
and  bring  about  a  fellowship  of  heart  with 
some  other,  recalling  that  sweet  old- 
time  description,  of  which  the  colours  can 
never  fade,  of  the  moment  when  the  heart  of 
Jonathan  leapt  to  David's.  ''  And  it  came  to 
pass,  when  David  had  made  an  end  of  speak- 
ing to  Saul,  that  the  soul  of  Jonathan  was  knit 
with  the  soul  of  David,  and  Jonathan  loved 
him  as  his  own  soul ;  and  Jonathan  stripped 
himself  of  the  robe  that  was  upon  him,  and 
gave  it  to  David,  and  his  apparel,  even  to  his 
sword,  and  to  his  bow,  and  to  his  girdle. *' 

But,  after  all,  the  Home  is  the  best  place 
of  all  for  shelter  and  rest.  There  are  the  green 
pastures  and  still  waters,  there  the  shadow  of 
the  rock  in  the  scorching  heat,  there  the 
strength  of  manhood  at  its  best  blended  with 

i66 


Resting-Places 

womanhood  and  childhood  in  their  most  art- 
less and  sweet  endearments  and  faith.     The 
attack  which  is  being  made  on  the  Family  is 
one  of  the  cruellest  that  can  be  imagined.    If 
it    were   to   succeed,    it    would   destroy   the 
mightiest  bulwark  in  human  life  against  the 
hatred,  opposition  and  criticism  of  the  world. 
Our  King  has  said,  in  wise  and  eloquent  words, 
that  ''  the  foundations  of  national  glory  are  set 
in  the  homes  of  the  people,  and  that  they  will 
only  remain    unshaken  while  the  family-life 
of  our  race  and  nation  is  strong,  simple,  and 
pure.'*      And  it  is  true  also  that  our  homes 
are  our  best  defence  against  the  heartbreak 
and  despair  that  fill  asylums,  jails,  and  dis- 
honoured graves.    The  Church  must  enter  the 
arena  and  fight  for   our  Homes  against  the 
hand  of  the  assailant.    By  permeating  public 
opinion,  through  pulpit,  press,  and  platform, 
with  true  ideals  ;  by  insisting  on  the  necessity 
of  marriage  among  Christians  being  only  ''  in 
the  Lord  ''  ;  by  her  appeal  for  self-control,  and 
by  her  advocacy  of  a  simpler  style  of  life  and 
expenditure  ;  by  her  insistence  that  husbands 
and  wives  should  bring  unsullied  character  to 
the  marriage-altar,  and  that  men  and  women 
should   be   judged   by   the   same   code — the 
Church  may  do  much  to  preserve  the  sanctity 
of  our  homes.      What  influence   other  than 

167 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

Religion  is  pervasive  enough,  deep-seated 
enough,  universal  enough,  to  deal  with  the 
vast  interests  which  are  involved  in  this  great 
question  !  Social  reformers  may  deal  with 
methods  of  segregation,  science  discuss  the 
laws  of  blending  and  growth ;  educationists 
may  train  the  young  to  right  thoughts  about 
their  own  natures  and  their  responsibility  for 
the  hygiene  of  the  race  ;  moralists  may  urge 
to  self-discipline  and  self-control,  but  only 
religion  can  comprehend  them  all,  co-ordinate 
them  with  each  other,  and  supply  the  breath 
of  life.  It  becomes  the  Church  to  bestir  herself, 
to  give  a  loftier  conception  of  wedlock  and 
home-life,  and  so  bring  *'  a  statelier  Eden  " 
back  to  man. 

But  our  home-life  cannot  be  left  to  chance. 
It  needs  culture,  such  as  Charles  Kingsley  gave 
to  it.  ''  Home,"  writes  his  wife,  ''  was  to  him 
the  sweetest,  fairest,  most  romantic  thing  in 
life  ;  and  there  all  that  was  best  and  brightest 
in  him  shone  with  steady  and  purest  lustre. 
No  fatigue  was  too  great  to  make  him  forget 
the  courtesy  of  less-wearied  moments,  no  busi- 
ness too  engrossing  to  deprive  him  of  his  readi- 
ness to  show  kindness  and  sympathy.  To 
school  himself  to  this  code  of  unfaltering  high 
and  noble  living  was  the  work  of  a  self-dis- 
cipline  so  constant  that,  to  many  people,  it 

1 68 


Resting-Places 

might  appear  quixotic.  Justice  and  mercy, 
and  that  self-control  which  kept  him  from 
speaking  a  hasty  word  or  harbouring  a  mean 
suspicion,  combined  with  a  Divine  tenderness, 
were  his  governing  principles  in  all  his  home 
relationship.'*  We  also  must  exercise  such 
qualities,  if  our  homes  shall  fulfil  the  highest 
ideal  of  restfulness. 


Last  is  the  Will  of  God.  It  was  the  olden 
custom  in  New  England,  as,  for  instance,  in 
Lyman  Beecher's  family,  to  observe  the  Sab- 
bath from  Saturday  night  to  Sunday  night, 
when  ''  three  stars  came  out."  Now,  there  are 
*'  three  bright  crystal  laws  of  life,"  which,  like 
pointer  stars,  guide  the  traveller's  eye  as  he 
travels  along  the  Way  :  To  resist  the  tyranny 
of  self  ;  to  recognise  the  rule  of  duty  ;  and 
to  live  in  the  Will  of  God.  It  is  especially  in 
the  latter  that  the  soul  finds  repose  in  the 
midst  of  the  wildest  storms  that  sweep  life's 
ocean. 

It  was  once  said  by  Charles  Lamb  of  one 
who  had  been  grievously  afflicted  :  ''He  gave 
his  heart  to  the  Purifier,  and  his  will  to  the 
Sovereign  Will  of  the  Universe."  Happy  are 
they  who  have  learned  this  art.  With  heart- 
purity  they  see  God,  and  with  wills  submitted 

169 


Life   and  the  Way  Through 

honestly  and  faithfully  to  His  will,  they  have 
a  foundation  for  their  lives  on  which  they  may 
build  the  house  of  life  with  no  fear  of  over- 
throw. Let  the  winds  blow  and  the  storms 
beat  upon  the  structure  of  their  character,  let 
the  waters  rise  and  become  a  torrent,  they 
cannot  be  moved,  because  they  are  founded 
on  a  rock. 

But  what  can  better  describe  the  rest  of 
the  soul  that  has  built  on  the  Will  of  God 
than  those  immortal  hues  of  Dante  : 

"  In  His  Will  is  our  peace.    To  this  all  things 
By  Him  created,  or  by  Nature  made, 
As  to  a  central  sea,  self-motion  brings." 

This  is  Mr.  Gladstone's  translation,  and 
he  says  :  ''  The  words  are  few  and  simple, 
and  yet  they  appear  to  me  to  have  an  in- 
expressible majesty  of  truth  about  them, 
to  be  almost  as  if  they  were  spoken  from  the 
very  mouth  of  God.  They  cannot  be  too 
deeply  graven  on  the  heart.  In  short,  what 
we  all  want  is  that  they  should  not  come 
to  us  as  an  admonition  from  without,  but 
as  an  instinct  from  within.  They  should 
not  be  adopted  by  effort  or  upon  a  process 
of  proof,  but  they  should  be  simply  the 
translation  into  speech  of  the  habitual  tone  to 
which  all  tempers,  affections,  emotions  are 

170 


Resting-Places 

set.  In  the  Christian  mood,  which  ought 
never  to  be  intermitted,  the  sense  of  this 
conviction  would  return  spontaneously  and 
be  the  foundation  of  all  mental  thoughts 
and  acts,  and  the  measure  to  which  the  whole 
experience  of  life,  both  inward  and  outward, 
is  referred/* 

Too  often,  when  men  speak  of  the  Will  of 
God,  they  mean  that  they  are  prepared  to 
resign  themselves  to  it,  to  submit  to  its 
dealings,  and  accept  its  rulings.  But  more 
than  that  is  demanded  of  the  truly  Christian 
soul — namely,  that  it  should  unite  itself 
with  it,  so  that  God's  will  should  become  the 
will  of  the  creature  by  a  thorough  and  blessed 
interfusion  and  blending.  This  position  is 
only  possible  when,  on  the  one  hand,  we 
check  and  quell  the  inclination  of  our  own 
will  to  act  as  from  the  centre  of  self,  and 
when,  on  the  other  hand,  we  allow  God 
to  work  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good 
pleasure. 

This  is  the  great  work  of  religion,  and 
when  we  have  attained  union  with  God  we 
retire  into  Him  as  a  stronghold  and  sure 
house  of  defence.  From  all  our  anxieties 
and  troubles  we  flee  to  the  Rock  that  is 
higher  than  ourselves.  We  shelter  under 
the   covert    of   His   wings.     Though   a   host 

171 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

should  arise  against  us,  in  this  we  are  con- 
fident. One  thing  we  desire  of  the  Lord, 
and  that  we  seek  after,  to  abide  in  the  house 
of  the  Lord  all  the  days  of  our  life,  to  behold 
the  beauty  of  the  Lord,  and  to  enquire  in 
His  temple.  And  thus  we  prepare  ourselves 
for  and  seek  unto  that  eternal  union  with 
God,  when  there  will  be  no  effort  to  say 
Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  in  heaven, 
because  we  shall  be  in  heaven,  and  His  Will 
will  be  done  in  us,  who  shall  then  be  par- 
taking of  the  image  of  the  heavenly.  *'  Then 
we  shall  live  and  move  with  it,  even  as  the 
pulse  of  the  blood  in  the  extremities  acts 
simultaneously  with  the  central  movement 
of  the  heart.'' 

Here,  in  point  of  fact,  is  the  essence  of 
the  Atonement.  Here  the  human  comes  to 
be  at-one  with  the  Divine.  We  come  back 
by  the  way  of  the  Cross,  which  is  the  su- 
preme emblem  of  the  merging  of  the  human 
will  with  God's,  into  that  Divine  Order  from 
which  we  have  strayed.  Thomas  a  Kempis 
has  rightly  spoken  of  it  as  the  King's  high 
road,  or  as  the  royal  pathway  to  Reality  ; 
and  indeed  there  is  no  other  method  of  arriv- 
ing at  Soul- Rest.  *'  In  the  Cross  doth  all 
consist,  and  all  lieth  in  our  dying  thereon  ; 
and  there  is  none  other  way  to  life  and  very 

172 


Resting-Places 

inward  peace  but  the  way  of  the  Holy  Cross 
and  daily  dying.  Walk  where  thou  wilt; 
seek  whatsoever  thou  wilt ;  and  thou  shalt 
find  no  higher  way  above,  nor  surer  way 
below,  than  the  Way  of  the  Holy  Cross.  Turn 
to  the  heights,  turn  to  the  deeps,  turn  withm, 
turn  without  :     everywhere  thou   shalt   find 

the  Cross.'* 

But,  in  very  wonderful  manner,  the  Cross 
is  the  gate  to  Blessedness.    The  following  in- 
cident shall  illustrate  this :    A  Christian  man 
had  to  undergo  an  operation  of  a  very  painful 
description.  He  refused  to  take  an  anaesthetic, 
lest  he  might  die  under  the  ordeal ;    and  he 
desired,  he  said,  to  meet  his  Maker,  if  that 
were  to  be  the  case,  with  a  clear  mind.    He 
cheerfully  surrendered  himself  to  the  Divine 
Will  and   embraced  it.     When   laid   on   the 
operating-table,   his   face   being   downwards, 
over  the  ledge  of  the  table  he  could  just  see 
the  ground,  and  discerned  two  pierced,  san- 
dalled feet  there.     Though  he  could  not  see 
the  upper  part  of  the  figure,  he  knew  that 
Christ  was  keeping  tryst  with  him,  and  became 
filled  with  such  rapture  that  he  had  no  know- 
ledge of  what  was  transpiring,  and  was  quite 
surprised  when  told  that  the  operation  was 
over.     They  carried  him  to  his  bed,  and  he 
lay  in  a  perfect  ecstasy  for  two  or  three  weeks 

173 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

till  he  was  quite  restored  and  returned  to 
his  ordinary  avocations. 

The  same  testimony  was  often  given  by 
the  martyrs,  who  were  so  exalted  above  their 
physical  pains  as  to  be  loath  to  be  taken 
off  the  rack  or  delivered  from  the  flame. 
Missionaries  who  passed  through  the  Boxer 
riots  have  borne  witness  that  they  were 
absolutely  unconscious  of  pain,  when  knives 
and  other  instruments  were  plunged  into 
their  flesh.  They  that  die  to  themselves  live 
unto  God.  Whilst  they  yield  to  the  dying 
side,  God  sees  to  their  Easter.  Death  is  the 
stepping-stone  to  life  and  peace.  ''  All  things 
become  new.''  Listen  to  this  from  Saul 
Kane,  the  converted  poacher  : — 

*'  The  station  brook,  to  my  new  eyes, 
Was  babbling  out  of  Paradise  ; 
The  waters  rushing  from  the  rain 
Were  singing  Christ  has  risen  again. 
I  thought  all  earthly  creatures  knelt 
From  rapture  of  the  joy  I  felt. 
The  narrow  station- wall's  brick  ledge, 
The  wild  hop  withering  in  the  hedge, 
The  lights  in  the  huntsman's  upper  story 
Were  parts  of  an  eternal  glory. 
Were  God's  eternal  garden  flowers. 
I  stood  in  bliss  at  this  for  hours." 


174 


THE   GROWING   SPLENDOUR   OF   LIFE 

The  ancient  conception  of  the  life  possible 
to  us  all  has  never  been  surpassed  :    '*  The 
path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shining  light,  or  as 
the  light  of  th-e  dawn,  that  shineth  more  and 
more  unto  the  perfect  day.'*  ♦     By  regular 
and  ever  augmenting  degrees  the  light  of  our 
life  is  intended  to  grow  ever  brighter,  until  it 
merges  in  the  perfect  light  of  eternity.    That 
there  is  a  perfect  day  somewhere,  where  we 
shall  attain  to  our  full  stature,  become  per- 
fected  even   as   our   Master   is  perfect,   and 
know  as  we  are  known,  is  established  not  only 
by  the  repeated  affirmation  of  Scripture,  and 
specially   of    Christ,   but    by   the   prophetic 
intuitions  of  the  soul.     It   is  impossible  to 
suppose  that  the  purest,  holiest,   and  most 
unselfish  natures  that  have  cherished  a  sure 
and  certain  faith  in  the  life  that  lies  on  the 
other  side  of  death,  which  will  be  the  perfected 
embodiment   of    our   fairest    and    best,   can 
have  been  deceived.     That  would  be  a  con- 
tradiction of  the  noblest  of  instinctive  beliefs, 

*  Prov.  iv.  1 8. 
175 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

and  would  be  a  solecism  in  a  world,  one  chief 
characteristic  of  which  is  that  where  there 
is  a  wing  there  is  air,  where  there  is  a  paddle- 
shaped  foot  there  is  water,  and  where  there 
is  a  baby's  cry  for  sustenance  there  is  a 
mother's  care. 

Yes  !  Beyond  the  fading  radiance  of  our 
disappointed  hopes,  beyond  the  clouds  and 
tempests  that  sometimes  introduce  or  follow 
the  dawn,  beyond  the  mists  that  often  en- 
wrap us  in  their  clammy  winding-sheets,  the 
perfect  day  is  awaiting  us.  It  may  be  that 
the  next  turn  of  the  road  may  bring  us  face 
to  face  with  that  most  blessed  consummation 
of  which  the  seer  spoke  when  he  said  :  "  And 
the  city  had  no  need  of  the  sun,  neither  of 
the  moon,  to  shine  upon  it,  for  the  glory  of 
God  did  lighten  it,  and  the  Lamb  is  the 
light  thereof.'* 

But  though  we  believe  generally  in  the 
sure  word  of  the  Master  concerning  the 
Father's  House  and  the  many  mansions,  and 
our  places  there,  our  heart  often  misgives  us 
as  we  seriously  anticipate  the  longer  or 
shorter  passage  between  the  vigour  of  our 
mid-life  and  the  valley  that  has  to  be  tra- 
versed before  we  reach  the  shining  table- 
lands. How  about  the  taking  down  of  the 
tabernacle  !  How  about  the  dwindling  number 

176 


The  Growing  Splendour  of  Life 

of  our  comrades  as  the  generation  of  which 
we  formed  a  part  becomes  decimated  by  the 
murderous  fire,  and  so  many  horses  are  rider- 
less !  How  about  the  darkening  of  the  night 
and  the  weakening  of  our  strength  !  It  is  not 
that  we  dread  so  much  the  snapping  of  the 
silver  cord  and  the  sudden  breaking  of  the 
suspended  bowl  of  oil  and  light  on  the  tesse- 
lated  pavement,  but  that  we  shrink  from  the 
day  when  the  strong  arms  that  have  kept  the 
house  tremble,  when  the  teeth  grind  the  corn 
with  difficulty,  and  the  music  of  the  voice 
becomes  low  !  We  repeat  to  ourselves  the 
familiar  words  of  R.  Browning,  but  we  shrink 
from  extracting  their  full  enjoyment  because 
we  question  their   absolute  trustworthiness  : 

"  Grow  old  along  with  me; 
The  Best  is  yet  to  be; 
The  Last  for  which  the  First  was  made.'* 

Without  doubt  our  expectation  largely 
affects  and  moulds  our  experience.  If  we 
become  pessimistic  in  our  outlook  on  life,  and 
suppose  that  its  light  and  beauty  are  to  be- 
come gradually  more  and  more  overcast,  it 
is  almost  certain  that  according  to  our  want 
of  faith  it  will  be  done  unto  us.  Our  hearts 
shed  their  hues  on  all  things,  as  the  light  we 
carry  in  the  dark  lane  is  tinged  by  the  tinted 

M  177 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

glass  through  which  it  is  emitted.  This  is  a 
subject  which  calls  for  faith  and  hope  to  lend 
us  their  aid.  Let  us  refuse  to  entertain  fore- 
boding thoughts.  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is 
the  evil  thereof.  God  alone  knows  whether 
there  will  be  any  prolonged  interval  of  wait- 
ing before  the  barge  comes  out  of  the  dim 
light  and  with  muffled  oars  approaches  the 
shore,  and  our  name  is  called.  But  if  there 
should  be  such,  let  us  dare  to  believe  that 
each  day  will  bring  its  own  sufficiency  of 
happiness,  not  of  the  boisterous  character  of 
earlier  days,  but  serene,  calm,  and  blessed. 

There  is,  for  instance,  the  increasing  vivid- 
ness of  spiritual  vision.  Even  as  memory  fades, 
and  the  intellectual  and  physical  forces  decay, 
it  assumes,  more  and  more,  its  supreme  prero- 
gative, and  stands  forth  as  Daniel  did  amid 
the  evanescing  glories  of  Nebuchadnezzar's 
mighty  empire.  It  sees  more  clearly  than  ever 
the  significance  of  existence  and  the  relative 
values  of  things.  The  Delectable  Mountains 
afford  a  vision  which  overleaps  the  level 
champaign  country,  and  sees  the  gleam  of  the 
golden  city.  We  may  borrow  the  corroborating 
words  of  another  in  this  matter,  who  spoke 
from  profound  and  wide  experience  :  '*  The 
biographies  which  record  this  strange  victory 
over  decay,  the  uprising  and  victory  of  the 

178 


The  Growing   Splendour  of  Life 

inner  life,  when  all  the  rest  of  the  man  is  at 
the  point  of  death,  are  many.  And  they  are 
found  written,  not  only  of  the  cultured  and 
the  strong  in  character,  but  of  the  poor,  the 
ignorant,  and  the  feeble-minded.  We  do  not 
find  this  in  any  philosophy  or  religion  which 
has  denied  God  and  denied  immortality,  and 
we  find  this  victoriousness  more  distinct  and 
developed  in  Christianity  than  in  Judaism. 
And,  moreover,  this  spiritual  power  grows 
stronger  in  proportion  to  the  decay  of  the 
other  powers,  for  earthly  passion  and  aims 
cloud  the  heavenly  horizon.''* 

The  soul  probably  prays  less  for  itself  and 
more  for  others.  The  employment  of  the  later 
years  must  be  replete  with  intercession.  The 
aged  should  serve  day  and  night  in  His  Temple. 
Not  that  they  may  not  sometimes  be  sent  forth 
to  minister  to  those  whom  they  have  loved,  if 
the  Master  so  appoint,  but  that  their  love  will 
probably  find  its  readiest  expression  in  prayer. 
This  ministry  should  peculiarly  be  the  work  of 
those  later  years  of  life,  when  the  activities  of 
life  must  necessarily  be  left  aside,  and  the  soul 
dwells  within  hearing  of  the  beat  of  the  waves 
on  the  shores  of  eternity.  We  love  with  a  wider 
and  more  catholic  love  as  we  grow  older  ;  and 
it  becomes  ever   more  natural  for  prayer  to 

*Rev.  Stopford  Brooke. 
179 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

arise  like  a  fountain  for  those  who  call  us 
friend,  and  all  others. 

The  motion  of  the  soul  slackens  somewhat 
as  it  approaches  the  port.  On  the  broad  bosom 
of  the  ocean  it  went  full  steam  ahead,  now 
the  engines  have  slowed  down  and  the  passen- 
gers begin  to  gather  on  deck.  The  sailing- 
vessel  takes  in  sail  and  approaches  gently. 
But  there  is  music  on  board,  and  love  for  our 
human  kind,  and  faith  in  God,  and  hope  which 
cannot  be  ashamed. 

Probably,  one  specially  important  method 
of  preserving  the  light  and  beauty  of  life  to  its 
close  is  the  maintenance  of  human  interests. 
We  withdraw  ourselves  from  the  active  conflict 
of  the  arena,  but  we  must  not  leave  the  tiers 
of  seats  reserved  for  the  spectators,  who  ex- 
press their  vivid  interest  in  whatever  is  trans- 
acting before  them,  giving  their  encourage- 
ments to  those  who  win  and  their  sympathy 
with  those  who  fail. 

The  closing  years  of  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  illustrate  this  point  with  singular  apt- 
ness. He  was  able  to  hold  his  Professorship 
till  he  was  seventy-three,  but  seven  years  after- 
wards began  his  series  of  papers,  which  he 
happily  christened  ''Over  the  Tea-Cups."  Of 
these,  he  wrote  to  his  friend,  John  Bellows :  '*  I 
don't  suppose  that  I  can  make  my  evening  tea- 

i8o 


The  Growing  Splendour  of  Life 

cups  as  much  a  success  as  my  morning  coffee- 
cups  were,  but  I  have  found  an  occupation,  and 
my  friends  encourage  me  with  the  assurance 
that  I  am  not  yet  in  my  second  childhood."  He 
had  ''  cleared  the  eight-barred  gate,"  but  this 
was  his  cheery  reflection  :  "New  sympathies, 
new  sources  of  encouragement,  if  not  of  inspira- 
tion, have  opened  themselves  before  me,  and 
cheated  the  least  promising  season  of  life  of 
much  that  seemed  to  render  it  dreary  and 
depressing."    His  sight  became  very  dim,  and 
he  had  to  use  the  services  of  a  secretary  for 
nearly  all  his  work.   The  black  cloud  of  blind- 
ness hovered  threateningly  on  the  horizon,  but 
he  never  abated  the  serene  and  cheerful  cour- 
age with  which  he  bore  himself.    ''  Grow  old, 
my   dear   Boys,   grow   old  !  "    he   writes,   at 
seventy-seven,   to  some  old  friends,   ''  Your 
failings  are  forgotten,  your  virtues  are  over- 
rated, there  is  just  enough  pity  in  the  love  that 
is  borne  you  to  give  it  a  tenderness  all  its  own. 
The  horizon  line  of  age  moves  forward  by 
decades.  At  sixty,  seventy  seems  to  bound  the 
landscape  ;    at  seventy,  the  eye  rests  on  the 
line  of  eighty  ;   at  eighty,  we  can  see  through 
the  mist  and  still  in  the  distance  a  ruin  or  two 
of  ninety  ;  and  if  we  reach  ninety,  the  mirage 
of  our  possible  centennial  bounds  the  pros- 
pect."   ''  I  don't  think  you  grow  old,  and  in 

i8i 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

many  ways  I  do  not  feel  as  if  I  did.  But  sight 
and  hearing  won't  Hsten  to  my  nonsense. 
They  both  insist  on  it.*' 

Death  drew  near  with  steps  so  slow,  so 
gently  graded,  that  the  approach  was  hardly 
perceptible.  Body  and  mind  gradually  lost 
their  vigour,  if  measured  by  intervals  of 
months,  but  hardly  by  shorter  periods.  He 
was  out  of  doors,  taking  his  usual  walks,  a  few 
days  before  the  end  came  ;  he  was  up  and 
about  the  house  actually  on  the  last  day ;  and 
he  died  painlessly  in  his  chair,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-five.  He  had  ever  been  full  of  sympathy 
with  his  fellows  on  board  this  vessel  of  the 
earth,  as  he  once  expressed  it ;  and  it  was 
generally  realised  that  this  was  no  comrade- 
ship of  words  only,  but  a  genuine  expression 
of  his  true  nature  ;  and  his  careful  cultiva- 
tion of  this  to  the  end  was  one  deep  secret  of 
his  undimmed  sunset. 

But  if  the  love  of  our  hinnan  kind  is  able 
to  illumine  our  lives  to  a  ripe  old  age,  how 
much  more  is  that  absorption  in  the  will  of 
God,  which  is  close  akin  to  it.  Indeed,  there  is 
one  notable  example  in  which  it  made  a  life, 
though  cut  short  at  its  meridian,  grow  into  a 
full  and  perfect  expression.  The  life  of  Sir 
Thomas  More  is  a  striking  illustration  of  this. 
He  could  not  give  his  assent  to  King  Henry's 

182 


The  Growing  Splendour  of  Life 

divorce  and  re-marriage,  and  was  condemned 
to  execution.  He  was  one  of  the  rarest 
scholars  and  most  accomphshed  gentlemen 
of  his  age,  to  say  nothing  of  his  distinguished 
career  as  statesman  and  Lord  High  Chancellor 
of  England. 

On  the  eve  of  his  execution,  he  writes  to  his 
daughter  :  *'  Mine  own  good  daughter,  never 
trouble  thy  mind  for  anything  that  ever  shall 
hap  me  in  this  world.  Nothing  can  come  but 
that  that  God  will.  And  I  make  me  very  sure 
that  whatsoever  that  be,  it  shall,  indeed,  be 
the  best.  And  with  this,  my  good  child,  I  pray 
you  heartily,  be  you  and  all  your  sisters,  and 
my  sons,  too,  comfortable  and  serviceable  to 
your  good  mother  my  wife.  And  I  right 
heartily  pray  both  you  and  them  to  serve  God, 
and  be  merry  and  rejoice  in  Him.  And  if  any- 
thing hap  me  that  you  would  loth,  pray  to 
God  for  me,  but  trouble  not  yourself  ;  as  I 
shall  full  heartily  pray  for  us  all,  that  we  may 
meet  together  once  in  heaven,  where  we  shall 
make  merry  for  ever,  and  never  have  trouble 
hereafter."  On  the  day  preceding  his  execu- 
tion, he  wrote  with  a  coal  to  his  daughter,  and 
thus  referred  to  it :  ''I  cumber  you,  good 
Margret,  much,  but  would  be  sorry  if  it  should 
be  any  longer  than  to-morrow  ;  for  to-morrow 
is  St.  Thomas'  even,  and,  therefore,  to-morrow 

183 


Life  and   the  Way  Through 

I  long  to  go  to  God.  It  were  a  day  very  meet 
and  convenient  for  me/'  When,  on  the  follow- 
ing day,  he  was  apprised  that  on  that  morning, 
before  9  a.m.,  he  should  suffer  death,  he  ex- 
pressed his  gratitude  to  the  King,  not  only  for 
the  benefits  and  honours  that  he  had  from 
time  to  time  conferred  on  him,  but  that  by 
putting  him  in  the  Tower,  he  had  given  him 
time  and  space  to  have  remembrance  of  his 
end.  Then,  addressing  Sir  Thomas  Pope,  he 
comforted  him  in  this  wise  :  "  Quiet  yourself, 
good  Master  Pope,  and  be  not  discomforted, 
for  I  trust  that  we  shall  see  each  other  in 
heaven  full  merrily,  where  we  shall  be  sure  to 
live  and  love  together,  in  joyful  bliss  eternally.'' 
And  upon  his  departure,  as  one  who  had  been 
invited  to  some  solemn  feast,  he  changed  him- 
self into  his  best  apparel.  ''  On  ascending  the 
scaffold,  which  was  so  weak  that  it  was  ready 
to  fall,  he  said  merrily  to  the  Lieutenant :  '  I 
pray  you  see  me  safe  up,  and  for  my  coming 
down  let  me  shift  for  myself '  ;  and  to  the 
executioner  :  *  Pluck  up  thy  spirits,  man,  and 
be  not  afraid  to  do  thine  office  ;  my  neck  is 
very  short ;  take  heed,  therefore,  thou  strike 
not  awry,  for  saving  of  thine  honesty.'  " 

It  would  be  hardly  possible  to  select  two 
men  in  more  striking  contrast  to  each  other 
than  these  two — the  Autocrat   of  the  Break- 

184 


The  Growing   Splendour  of  Life 

fast  Table  and  Henry  VIII/s  Chancellor.  In 
their  religious  standpoint,  their  outlook  on 
life,  their  culture  and  accomplishments,  their 
death,  there  was  the  most  complete  and 
glaring  contrast,  and  yet,  in  each  case,  how 
brilliantly  the  day  of  mortal  life  passed  from 
the  glorious  splendour  of  earthly  usefulness 
and  success  into  those  unrevealed  glories 
which  the  Scriptures  describe  as  the  perfect 
day. 

We  cannot  but  remember  one  further 
description  of  the  passage  of  the  soul,  not 
actually  in  experience,  but  in  forecast  and 
anticipation,  as  described  in  the  closing  pages 
of  *'  The  Pilgrim's  Progress,''  which  become  a 
very  field  of  the  cloth  of  gold.  The  delinea- 
tion of  Christian  experience  in  the  earlier 
pages  is  as  rich  in  colour  as  any  of  the  hues 
which  Titian  and  Rubens  have  left  upon  their 
immortal  canvas,  but  as  the  great  story 
approaches  its  termination  the  great  dreamer 
rises  to  a  wealth  of  imagery  and  a  magnifi- 
cence of  diction  which  describe  the  loftiest 
experience  of  the  saint  with  the  utmost  elo- 
quence of  the  seer.  And  in  the  confident 
hope  that  this  vision  may  be  the  happy  lot 
of  all  who  have  thus  far  accompanied  me,  I 
transcribe  them  :  ''  Now  I  saw  in  my  dream 
that   these  two  men  went  in  at  the  gate  ; 

185 


Life  and  the  Way  Through 

and  lo,  as  they  entered,  they  were  trans- 
figured, and  they  had  raiment  put  on  them 
that  shone  Hke  gold.  There  was  also  that 
met  them  with  harps  and  crowns,  and  gave 
them  to  them — the  harps  to  praise  withal, 
and  the  crowns  in  token  of  honour.  Then 
I  heard  in  my  dream  that  all  the  bells  of  the 
city  rang  again  for  joy,  and  that  it  was  said 
unto  them,  '  Enter  ye  into  the  joy  of  your 
Lord.'  I  heard  also  the  men  themselves, 
that  they  sang  with  a  loud  voice,  saying  : 
'  Blessing  and  honour,  and  glory  and  power, 
be  unto  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and 
unto  the  Lamb,  for  ever  and  ever.' 

"  Now,  just  as  the  gates  were  opened  to 
let  in  the  men,  I  looked  in  after  them,  and, 
behold,  the  City  shone  like  the  sun  ;  the 
streets  also  were  paved  with  gold,  and  in 
them  walked  many  men,  with  crowns  on 
their  heads,  palms  in  their  hands,  and  golden 
harps  to  sing  praises  withal. 

'*  There  were  also  of  them  that  had  wings, 
and  they  answered  one  another  without  in- 
termission, saying,  '  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the 
Lord.'  And  after  that  they  shut  the  gates ; 
which,  when  I  had  seen,  I  wished  myself 
among  them." 

*'  In  Thee,  therefore,"  to  quote  Thomas 
a  Kempis,   ''  Lord  God,  I  put  all  my  hope 

i86 


The  Growing   Splendour  of  Life 

and  refuge  ;  on  Thee  I  repose  all  my  tribula- 
tion and  anguish ;  for  I  find  all  to  be  infirm 
and  unstable,  whatever  I  behold  out  of  Thee. 
For  neither  will  many  friends  avail  me,  nor 
strong  helpers  bring  me  succour,  nor  wise 
counsellors  give  a  useful  answer,  nor  books 
of  learned  men  console  me,  nor  all  precious 
substance  set  me  free,  nor  any  secret  and 
pleasant  place  keep  me  safe,  if  Thou  Thyself 
stand  not  by  me,  help  not,  strengthen,  cheer, 
teach,  and  keep  me/* 


187 


Printed  by 

Cas<;ell  &  Company,  Limited,  La  Buns  Sauvagb. 

London,  B.C. 


Date  Due 

«no-54 

^     ^  n  54 

^ 

r^ 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Llbn 


1    1012  01004  7167 


!i 


iil! 


M,l| 


!..:l'l!|l! 


Ji:    *l    !i! 


I^ili       I 


!i:;;i!!!!t( 


!l! 


t;ili 


!!! 


ii! 


it 


